Powerpuff Halloween
by Ssgtsplatter
Summary: It's Halloween in Townsville and the powerpuff girls are going trick or treating...and so are the rowdyruff boys. They cross paths near the end of the night and Brick mentions a spook house. A bet is made and all 6 of them head out to the spook house. What they don't know is that the night's events are going to change their lives forever.
1. Chapter 1

Powerpuff Halloween

**Ok, first time doing this so bear with me please. Here we go!**

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><p><em>The City of Townsville. It's a crisp autumn evening, the sun is setting, the trees are turning, the leaves are falling, the wind is gently blowing, a few clouds in the sky, and a full moon is coming out tonight. Citizens are also decorating their homes with bats, spider webs, jack-o-lanterns, skeletons, goblins, and ghouls. Put all this this together and it can only mean one thing…HALLOWEEN! Yes, all the children of Townsville are deciding what they're going to dress as tonight, including our girls; Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup.<em>

Inside the Utonium household, we find two of the three girls waiting in the living room already in their costumes; Bubbles is dressed as a cute kitty kat and Blossom is a witch. While waiting for Buttercup, the two sisters talk about what they are going to do this Halloween night.

"Blossom, while we're waiting for Buttercup, do you have a plan for maximizing the amount of candy we can get tonight?"

"Well Bubbles, as you know, I only do that for Buttercup since she can go through candy like, well, a plague of mice can go through cheese, but yes, I do. We're actually going to hit the city this year and then work our way back into the suburbs to end the night. That way, Buttercup can't complain that we missed out on half the candy."

*giggle* "OK. After all, few things are as grumpy as Buttercup when she misses out on getting the most out of Halloween night."

"Too true."

As Blossom and Bubbles laugh at that, they hear an aggravated scream come from upstairs. The two sisters look at each other and sigh. They fly up to their room and open the door to find Buttercup buried head first in a pile of clothes tossing them all over the room.

Blossom floats up to Buttercup and asks the obvious question, "Buttercup, what are you doing?"

"I'm looking for my zombie costume."

"Well, maybe if you had put it somewhere you could easily find it, then you wouldn't be having this problem."

"I know exactly where I put it. It was right here in this pile of clothes."

Blossom rolls her eyes at this. Knowing that trying to find Buttercup's lost costume could take hours, what with the way she can completely misplace things, Blossom offers Buttercup one of the other costumes that she bought a few days ago.

"Buttercup, it'll take us too long to look for your zombie costume, so how about I lend you my other costume that I bought?"

"What other costume?" Buttercup asks with a raised eyebrow.

"That nun costume."

"WHAT?! Are you kidding me? Blossom, me dressing as a nun would be like you dressing as Mojo jojo. It wouldn't look right."

As childish as it sounded, Blossom had to give Buttercup that one. Even though it is Halloween, there are some things that some people just wouldn't look right dressing up as.

Bubbles then spoke up, "Well, I've still got my Harmony Bunny costume from that time we tried to be better super heroes. You could wear that."

Buttercup looked at Bubbles in absolute horror. Blossom on the other hand was trying NOT to laugh out loud. Buttercup gave Blossom a death glare but Blossom couldn't care less. As Buttercup weighed her options, it became obvious to her that she had three choices; go as a nun, go as Harmony Bunny, or don't go at all. She wasn't going to miss out on trick or treating and she wouldn't be caught dead wearing a bunny costume so that just left the nun costume. She wasn't thrilled about it, but it was the lesser evil of the three.

"Grrrrrr, fine, I'll wear the nun costume."

Blossom pulled the nun costume out of their closet and handed it to Buttercup who sped off to the bathroom to change. 10 minutes later, Buttercup came out with a scowl on her face and her arms crossed.

"Oh, come on Buttercup, it doesn't look that bad. In fact, it looks better on you than I thought it would," said Blossom.

"Yeah, you can pull this off easy," said Bubbles.

Buttercup just grumbled a "whatever" as a reply.

Blossom and Bubbles just shook their heads. All three went downstairs, got their big body-pillow cases and flashlights, said goodbye to the Professor, and headed out for a night of trick or treating.

_Well, at least Buttercup won't miss out on the trick or treating tonight. Now that the girls are on their way for the night, let's look around the city a bit. Oh, what's this? It looks like even some of the villains are getting into the Halloween spirit…heh heh, see what I did there? Spirit, as in ghosts, get it? Hehe heh…uhh, ahem sorry. Mojo has decorated his lair with orange and black lights as well as skeletons and ghosts. The Gang Green Gang is dressed as zombies and are causing a bit of trouble for passersby. But it looks like the police are keeping an eye on them. Oh, and there is the Amoeba boys who are…sigh, STILL trying to steal an orange but are wearing werewolf masks thinking that no one will recognize them. Even the evilest of evil, the cruelest of cruel, HIM, is preparing for Halloween…but fortunately for everyone tonight, Halloween is his one day off and is merely just settling in to relax. However, there are three villains who are going out to trick or treat tonight; Brick, Boomer, and Butch of the Rowdyruff Boys._

Inside Fuzzy's cabin, the boys are already in their costumes; Boomer is the Grim Reaper, Brick is a vampire, and Butch is a pirate. Boomer can't wait to get started and is pacing back and forth waiting for Brick to give the word.

"Brick, what are we waiting for? I want to get going. It's plenty dark out already."

Brick quickly turned to Boomer and bonked him on the head saying, "For the 50th time Boomer, we'll go out when the sun drops below the horizon, now stop asking!"

Butch shakes his head from the corner of the room. He's just as aggravated as Boomer but for different reasons. Butch just wants to steal all the candy and not go through the whole trick or treat thing. When he brought this up with Brick, Brick said that while that would be fun and easier to do, it would draw the attention of the Puffs and while it would be fun to ruin the girl's night, it would ruin their night as well and besides, they'll get free candy anyway if they just play along. Not to mention, having superpowers, they could carry large garbage bags of candy and hit the entire city in the process since they can fly.

Butch glances out the window and sees that the sun is just a few minutes from dropping below the horizon. Looking back, he sees Boomer pacing again and motions with his head for Brick to come over to where he is. Brick walks over.

"What?"

"Is it just me or is Boomer actually excited for tonight?"

Brick sighs, "It's not just you. Although, we do need to remember that he is the most easily amused out of the three of us."

"True that. So…"

"So…what?"

"We're really not going to steal any candy?"

"UGH! Look Butch, I'll make you a deal, if we are not satisfied with the haul we rake in tonight doing things my way, we'll steal a few bags of candy from whatever stragglers we find on our way home. Deal?"

"Deal."

Brick and Butch shake on it and turn just as Boomer says, "Ok, the sun has gone down, let's go!"

Glancing out the window, Brick sees that Boomer is right and nods to Boomer and Butch saying, "Alright boys, let's hit it." Letting out a cheer, Boomer flies out first with Brick and Butch close behind.

Flying over the forest, Brick says, "Here's what we're going to do boys, we're going to hit the city first, then we'll hit the suburbs. After that, we'll head to this old spook house I found last month and hang out there for a while and eat our candy."

Boomer and Butch quickly look at Brick and say together, "Spook house?"

"Yeah, spook house, as in creepy and possibly haunted," says Brick while grinning evilly.

"Cool," says Butch

"Yeah, neat," says Boomer although with a slight apprehension in his voice.

Brick and Butch both notice this and grin at each other.

"What's the matter Boomer, scared?" says Butch.

"No! It's just…uhh…"

"Just what?" says Brick.

"Well, why do we have to eat our candy in an old house? We could eat it back at Fuzzy's cabin or anywhere else for that matter."

Brick face palmed, "Because dumb-dumb, it's Halloween. You're supposed to go to spooky places tonight and get the living daylights scared out of you…or watch someone else get the living daylights scared out of them, namely, me and Butch watching you freak out."

Brick and Butch laugh at Boomer's downtrodden look and continue flying toward Townsville.

"Very funny guys."

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><p><strong>Wow. OK, first off, I have newfound respect for all you writers on this site. This is harder than I first thought and I can't begin to imagine how you all do this on a regular basis. I can only hope this gets easier as time goes by.<strong>

**Second, Yay! My first chapter of my first story on this site, can't wait to get the next one up.**

**Third, this is my first time so please be constructive**

**Fourth, if you want to see what the girls' and the boys' costumes look like, just type the EXACT words "powerpuff girls halloween" into google images and one of the first images should be a picture of the PPG, RRB and the PPNKG. The PPNKG will not be in this story just so you all know in advance.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Alright ch. 2**

_Yes, Halloween has officially begun. All up and down the streets of Townsville, children are going from house to house reciting the famous phrase "trick or treat" as they do. However, as the night goes on, one thing has become clear very quickly; the Rowdyruff boys take the phrase "trick or treat" very seriously._

The boys have done pretty well so far, their large garbage bags are about 1/3 full and they are almost done with the city. Right now though, they are getting ready to trick/prank someone who didn't give them candy. This has happened a few times tonight so far but pranking people is just as much fun as trick or treating so they aren't complaining. As Boomer flies back with a bucket of ice water that he got from who knows where and gets ready to dump it on Brick's go, Butch is sitting off to the side waiting for his brothers to finish with their lame prank. Butch was all for pulling pranks tonight and was looking forward to doing that more than the trick or treating but Brick reminded him again that they didn't want to give the Puffs a reason to find them and ruin their night so they've been forced to keep their pranks down to a minimum.

As Brick rings the doorbell of the house that didn't give them candy and runs, he tells Boomer to get ready. When the door opens and the homeowner walks out, Brick gives the signal.

"NOW!"

Boomer dumps the bucket of ice water on the homeowner's head and the homeowner screams in surprise as all three brothers fly off before the homeowner can rub the water from his eyes.

"HA HA! Did you see the look on his face?" Says Brick in between laughs.

"Yeah, totally. That was priceless!" Boomer replies.

Boomer notices Butch's scowl and rolls his eyes.

"Butch, I know that keeping our pranks on the down low is a bit of a bummer, and I do agree with you a little, but you have to admit, that was classic."

"Yeah, come on Butch, stop being such a crab. I know not stealing the candy and taking it easy with the pranks is bugging the hell out of you but we'll make up for that a couple days from now after we finish our candy and go back to harassing Townsville." Says Brick.

Butch just gives them an "uh-huh" as confirmation he had heard them. Brick and Boomer both roll their eyes.

Meanwhile on the other side of side of town, the girls are peacefully trick or treating and are NOT taking the phrase "trick or treat" seriously. Well, Blossom and Bubbles aren't anyway.

"Buttercup, what are you doing?!" Blossom yells.

"Oh, that smells so gross, I think I might puke." Says Bubbles.

Buttercup had somehow snuck a few stink bombs out with her when they left the house and was using them to get a few reactions out of passersby whenever she could. It had taken Blossom and Bubbles a few minutes, a few odd snickers from Buttercup, and a whiff of the horrible odor before they finally realized what she was doing.

"Hey, if I'm stuck wearing this nun costume, the least you can do is let me have some fun while I'm out here."

"But stink bombs? Really? That's something Mitch Mitchelleson would do." Blossom says while trying to waft away the smell using her hand.

Buttercup chuckles, "who do you think I got them from in the first place?"

Blossom gives Buttercup a flat look, "UGH, figures."

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><p>As both the girls and the boys finish in the city, they fly off to the suburbs. Both groups continue to trick or treat unaware they are just a few blocks away from each other the whole time. After about an hour has passed, and with the boys' bags almost full after they've just finished off another street, they are floating down a sparsely populated sidewalk talking amongst themselves.<p>

"So Butch, how do you like our haul for tonight?" Asked Brick.

Butch looks at Brick and says, "Well Brick, while we did have to work a little bit more than we should have," meaning he still would've preferred it if they had stolen the candy instead of trick or treating, "I'll admit, we didn't do too bad and we're not quite done yet."

Brick scoffed at this and said, "Dude, sometimes you are impossible to please."

Boomer nods in agreement at this.

The boys then hear a small gasp at this point. They look ahead and see a young girl in a white princess costume quickly cross the street. The boys grin at this small display of fear. For most of the night, almost no one really recognized them until they flew away, at which point, people realized they had just given candy to the Rowdyruff boys so seeing someone recognize them immediately was a rare occurrence tonight but it made it more enjoyable when it did. Fortunately for the girl, the boys kept going about their own business and left her alone.

As the boys kept floating down the street, Robyn Snyder couldn't believe her eyes. The Rowdyruff boys were trick or treating. Them! And, in the same neighborhood as the Powerpuff girls too. She knew that if they bumped into the girls it could end badly for everyone tonight. As she continues to walk down the road, she hoped she can find the girls and warn them before the boys find them first and a brawl breaks out.

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><p>Meanwhile, a few blocks away, Mitch Mitchelleson, who is wearing a robot costume, has just bumped into the girls himself and was currently doubled over in laughter at Buttercup's costume.<p>

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! This is great! HAHAHAHA! Oh man, I never would've imagined you wearing a nun costume Buttercup! HAHAHAHA!" Mitch was crying he was laughing so hard. Buttercup on the other hand was fuming and was close to hitting Mitch upside the head.

Before Buttercup could do just that, Blossom cut in saying, "Gee Mitch, I thought you would put some effort into being a robot and not show any emotion. You of all people should know robots don't have a sense of humor."

Mitch composed himself long to respond, "While you are right Blossom in that robots don't have emotions, I don't have to be in character all the time and this is one of those times." He then continues to laugh. Buttercup has had enough and grabs Mitch by his collar and gets in his face.

"Look Mitch, if you want to see tomorrow and keep your candy, then you better shut up!" She growls.

Mitch seeing the pissed off look on Buttercup's face immediately stops laughing and leaves before she decides to change her mind.

Blossom walks up to her sister and says, "Buttercup, was that really necessary?"

Buttercup just gives Blossom a flat stare as a response.

Blossom sighs saying, "Yeah, your right, good point."

Bubbles suddenly calls out, "Hey Robyn, over here!"

Blossom and Buttercup look over and indeed see Robyn walking a little ways down the street. Robyn sees them and gets a relieved look on her face and hurries over to them which Blossom thought was a little strange.

"Hey girls, boy am I glad I caught you."

Bubbles squeals, "Oh Robyn, I love your princess costume. It's so pretty."

Robyn blinks before she takes the compliment.

"Oh, thank you Bubbles. I like your kitten costume too, and Blossom, you make a pretty good witch."

"Oh, Thanks Robyn." Replied Blossom. But before Blossom could ask Robyn why she was glad she caught them, Robyn noticed Buttercup.

"Buttercup, you're dressed as a nun?"

"Don't start with me Robyn; I already got enough of it from Mitch."

"Oh, sorry. You do look pretty good in it though."

"Yeah whatever."

Blossom then cut in, "Hey Robyn, when you saw us, you had this relieved look on your face and you said you were glad you caught us. Is there something wrong?"

"Oh yeah, you are not going to believe who I saw trick or treating several minutes ago."

The girls looked at each other and said, "Who?"

"The Rowdyruff Boys."

"WHAT?!" All three shouted.

"Yeah I know. I had the same reaction."

The girls couldn't believe their ears.

"Really?" asked Bubbles.

Robyn just nods.

"Wow, that's a surprise." Said Buttercup.

"I know," says Blossom, who is the most surprised about this, "I'd have thought the boys would've just stolen all the candy, not actually gone trick or treating. They didn't threaten you or anything did they?" Blossom asks knowing that they would do something like that if they wanted to.

"No, they didn't threaten me. They didn't even talk to me; but they did notice me cross the street and they grinned at me because they knew that I recognized them and that I got scared." Said Robyn.

Blossom thought that was a little unusual for them, but before she could ponder on it further Robyn spoke again.

"Anyway, after I saw them, I thought I should try and find you guys and warn you that they were in the area."

Blossom smiles at Robyn and says, "Thanks for letting us know Robyn. If you're done trick or treating, you might want to go home now; if we do bump into the boys, it could turn nasty."

"Yeah, good idea." Robyn begins to walk home but stops when she remembers something, "Oh, I almost forgot, the boys are dressed as a pirate, a vampire, and the Grim Reaper."

Blossom nods and says, "Thanks again Robyn…oh and Happy Halloween."

Robyn smiles and says, "You too. See you girls on Monday."

"Bye Robyn." All three reply.

"So the boys are out here somewhere too? That's just great." Mutters Buttercup.

"Cool it Buttercup. We'll cross that bridge _**only**_ if we come to it." Says Blossom.

* * *

><p>Mitch is just passing Pokey Oaks kindergarten muttering to himself.<p>

"Sheesh Buttercup, can't take a joke can you. If I was the one wearing a ridiculous costume, you wouldn't stop laughing for a week."

As he walks around the corner, he bumps into someone and both he, and the person he bumped into, land flat on their butts. Mitch gets up growling at whoever he just bumped into.

"Hey, watch were you're going will ya?"

When he got a good look at who he just bumped into though, his heart skipped a beat. It was the Rowdyruff Boys; and to make matters worse, the one he bumped into was Buttercup's counter-part, Butch.

Butch jumped up and got in Mitch's face, "Why don't _**you**_ watch were you're going?"

Mitch fell back down on his butt so now Butch was standing over him. Mitch glanced over at the other two, Brick and Boomer. Brick had a look on his face that screamed, "Dude, you are dead," and Boomer was looking back and forth between Brick and Butch before looking back at Mitch and saying, "Hey man, you want me to read you your last rites?"

Mitch's eyes bug out before he whimpers, "Oh, come on. I just escaped Buttercup's wrath only to have you pound me into the ground instead?"

Butch blinks at this. "Buttercup? Hold on, you mean to say you just saw the Puffs?"

Mitch blinks and quickly nods hoping he can get out of this. "Yeah, just a few minutes ago. All three of them are just up this street." Mitch points in the direction he just came from.

The boys look in the direction Mitch is pointing in.

Brick says, "Really now?"

"Yeah." Mitch replies nervously.

Butch then realizes something that Mitch just said, "Hey, wait a minute. You said you just escaped Buttercup's wrath right?" Mitch nods at this, not knowing where this was going. "What did you do to piss her off?"

Mitch flinches at this. He knows the Puffs and the Ruffs are enemies but he's not sure what their reaction will be when he tells them.

Mitch swallows and says, "Well, I was laughing at her costume and she got angry."

Butch blinked again and looked back at Brick and Boomer before looking back at Mitch.

"…and what is Buttercup dressed as if you don't mind me asking?"

Mitch chuckled a little and said, "She's dressed as a nun."

Butch's eyes went wide. For a few moments, it was dead quiet. Then Butch's eye twitched. Once, then twice, then he snickered before he broke out laughing.

Mitch breathed a sigh of relief. He couldn't believe his luck. He was going to get out of this without any bodily harm. Normally if you could make the RRB laugh, you're in the clear.

Mitch looked over at Brick and saw his mouth hanging open slightly.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, I know. I had the same reaction as your brother here when I realized it was her."

Brick shook his head in disbelief while face-palming. Then he remembered what Mitch said earlier.

"…and that's when she threatened you right?"

Mitch just nodded.

Boomer then spoke up, "What are Bubbles and Blossom dressed up as? Are they just as ridiculous?"

Mitch scoffed, "Nah, Bubbles, being the girly girl she is, her costume is pretty predictable; she's dressed as a kitten. Blossom's costume on the other hand was a little bit of a surprise; I didn't think a witch would be something she'd dress up as."

Brick snickered, "Pinkie is a witch? Huh, go figure."

Butch, who was laughing this whole time, finally calms down, looks at Mitch and throws his arm over Mitch's shoulder and says, "Dude, this is your lucky night. Not only do you escape getting beaten up by Buttercup but you just put me in a good mood so now I won't beat you up either. What's your name dude?"

"Uhh, it's Mitch. Mitch Mitchelleson."

"Well, thanks Mitch, I really needed that tonight. Now get outta here before I change my mind."

Mitch chuckles nervously and quickly leaves the RRB alone on the sidewalk.

After Mitch leaves, Butch turns towards his brothers and says, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but for once in my life, I can't wait to see Buttercup."

With that said, the boys float off in the direction that Mitch originally came from.

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><p>The boys didn't have to float for long. Two minutes after speaking to Mitch, as they were passing a small park, Brick spots the girls floating down the driveway of a house and sure enough; Bubbles was dressed as a kitten, Blossom was a witch, and Buttercup was…oh dear god, Mitch wasn't kidding, she is dressed as a nun. The girls hadn't noticed them yet and his brothers hadn't noticed them either so Brick let them cross the street before he called out.<p>

"Well, well, well. Look who's here boys."

Brick watched with smug satisfaction as the girls froze. He heard Blossom mutter "oh no" under her breath and that just made him grin even more. The girls finally turn toward them and they stare each other down. Well, five of them stared each other down because Butch took one look at Buttercup and just fell over laughing.

**Whew chapter 2 done. How am I doing so far for a first timer? Leave a review, would you kindly.**

…

**Sorry, I have no idea where the Bioshock reference came from.**


	3. Chapter 3

As Butch is rolling on the ground laughing, the girls look on in bewilderment while Brick and Boomer are more annoyed than anything else. Butch is laughing so hard, he's actually crying; even more so than Mitch was. Buttercup, knowing that Butch is laughing at her, wants to just beat him senseless right now; but she knows that if she does, it'll more than likely trigger an all-out brawl between them and with kids still out trick or treating, it would be too dangerous. That reason, and that reason only, is why she is holding her temper.

After 30 seconds of Butch laughing go by, Boomer finally speaks up, "Butch, I thought you got all this out of your system after that Mitch kid told us what the girls were wearing?"

The girl's eyes widen at this.

"Mitch? Mitch Mitchelleson?" Blossom asks.

"Yeah, wha-" Brick started to say but was cut off by Buttercup's angry shout.

"MITCH MITCHELLESON, YOU ARE DEAD MEAT WHEN YOU WALK INTO CLASS MONDAY!"

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><p>About 10 blocks away, in a trailer park, Mitch was standing just outside his home when he heard Buttercup's shout. Gulping the lump in his throat and with a shaking hand, he grabbed the door handle, opened the door and went inside. After he went to his room and locked himself in, he hid under his bed cowering. He realized he may only have a couple days left to live so he decided he had better finish his candy before Monday and make the most of his last weekend.<p>

* * *

><p>Back with the girls and the boys, Brick is staring at Buttercup with slightly wide eyes before turning back to Blossom and picking up where he left off.<p>

"Uhhhhh…okay, like I was saying, what if we did talk to some kid named Mitch?"

"Oh, no real reason." Blossom glanced at Buttercup, she sounded pretty serious just now. Come Monday, she might have to insure that Mitch at least lives to see Tuesday; whether he ends up going to the hospital is beyond her control but making sure he lives, that she can do. "Just making sure we were talking about the same person. He was wearing a robot costume right?"

"Yeah, he was."

"Yep, we sure are talking about the same person."

Meanwhile, Butch, who was still laughing despite Buttercup's shout, calmed down enough to answer Boomer's earlier question.

"The reason I'm laughing again Boomer is because it's one thing to be told what Buttercup was wearing, it's another thing entirely to see it for myself." Boomer just shakes his head muttering something along the lines of, "you're weird," to himself.

Butch turns back to Buttercup, "Hey Buttercup, I got to know. Did you lose a bet or something? Is that why you're dressed as a nun?"

Buttercup replies with a low growl, "I lost my original costume and I had to borrow one of Blossom's, okay?"

Upon hearing those words, Brick gets a repulsed look on his face.

"Woah, woah, woah! Pinkie, you were going to be the nun tonight?!"

Blossom quickly turns back to Brick shocked for a moment at his sudden outburst but quickly glares at him and says, "so what if I was going to be the nun tonight?"

"So what?! You being a nun would've been terrible. At least Buttercup being a nun is funnier than hell because it is pretty much one of **the** last things she would ever be!"

Blossom narrows her eyes. "And why would I be a terrible nun?"

Brick looks astonished. _"She really can't see why?"_ He thought amazed.

"Why? I'll tell you why; you'd make a terrible nun because it would be too loud a costume for you to wear."

Blossom's eyes widened, "EXCUSE ME?!"

Brick continued, "Yeah because of all of your 'I'm the smartest, I know what's best for you, I can do no wrong, I'm-up-on-my-ivory-pedestal' crap. Basically, it's your version of the phrase, 'I'm holier than thou.'"

Blossom was about to really let him have it when Buttercup cut in.

"Thank you."

Blossom looks at Buttercup in utter shock, "WHAT?!"

Buttercup continues talking to Brick like she didn't even hear Blossom, "Bubbles and I tried explaining that to her in the costume shop but she wasn't really listening to us." Out of the corner of her eye, Blossom sees Bubbles nodding her head.

"HA! Even your own sisters have you pegged on this one Pinkie!"

Blossom looked at her sisters in utter shock before turning back to Brick with pure fury burning in her glowing, pink eyes.

"Oh, okay. Well then, if we're going to link our personalities to the costumes we chose to wear, then it makes perfect sense that you chose to be a vampire!" Blossom shouts with venom in her voice.

Now it was Brick's eyes that narrowed, "And why is that?" He said in a voice as cold as ice.

Blossom grins and says, "Because, vampires are sinful, deceptive, and totally full of themselves just like you are you self-centered, arrogant, jerk!"

Silence. Utter silence. All you could hear was the wind gently blowing through the trees and nothing else. The others had been just standing by listening to the two of them since their banter started but when Blossom said that last line, everyone sucked in a breath and nervously looked back and forth between the two red heads. Bubbles was white with fear and Boomer was ready to either bolt out of there or try and calm Brick down but he wasn't sure which one he was going to do yet; Buttercup had even completely forgotten her anger at Butch for laughing at her and Butch had forgotten Buttercup was dressed as nun.

After a long moment, Brick finally reacted to what Blossom said…by snarling.

"What was that Pinkie? I didn't quite catch that." Boomer saw that Brick was about to explode in Blossom's face and he decided right then he would try to calm Brick down.

"Brick, wait!" Boomer shouted as he jumped in between Blossom and Brick. "Didn't you say at the begging of the night that, while it would be a bit of a downer, we couldn't do anything too bad because we didn't want to give the girls a reason to come find us and ruin our night and even though it would've be kinda fun to ruin their night it would still ruin ours and it would've ended up not being fun for any of us if we had?" Boomer rambled quickly and even repeating himself once or twice in the process.

Brick stopped and stared at Boomer. For once, the idiot was right; not to mention he reminded Brick of his own words which was kind of humiliating when he thought about it. Blossom, meanwhile, thought back to what Robyn said earlier, "no they didn't threaten me; they didn't even talk to me." Blossom knew that that was unusual of the boys not to threaten someone for fun and now she knew why.

Brick growls and pushes Boomer behind him to look Blossom in the eye and says, "You're lucky that what Boomer just said is the truth." Everyone lets out the breath they were holding. "With that said however, we will make up for this a couple days from now once we've finished our candy."

Blossom narrows her eyes as a response.

Brick sneers at her then turns back to his brothers and says, "Alright, let's ditch this lame scene and head to the spook house."

Butch and Boomer, just remembering the second part of their night, give different responses.

"Alright!" says Butch.

"Oh great." says Boomer.

Buttercup perks up at the words "spook house" and out of curiosity, asks about it.

"Spook house? What spook house?"

Brick glances at Buttercup and, shrugging his shoulders, decides to tell her. "Oh, I found this old house or mansion out in the middle of the woods last month while I was flying around to kill some time. We're just going there to eat some of our candy and chill for a while before calling it a night and going home."

Buttercup raises an eyebrow. "Wait, you mean a legitimate abandoned/haunted house? Not one of those cheesy, fake, tourist attractions?"

Brick replies, "Yeah, that's right," then he grins, "not that it matters to you three since your girls and you'd get scared silly within the first 20 seconds."

The girls stiffen at this, Blossom especially since she is still a little miffed at him for calling her out on the nun thing. "Excuse us? Brick, we don't scare easily and you know that. In case you forgot, we are the ones who fight criminals, super-villains, and monsters on an almost daily basis, not you. So if anyone can be unbothered by sitting in a supposed haunted house, it's us."

Brick glares daggers at Blossom and Butch is giving her the stink eye; but Boomer looks thoughtful for a change and says, "As much as I hate to say this, she does have a point about facing monsters and stuff."

Brick and Butch both whack Boomer on the head, hard, and say, "Boomer, shut up!"

Brick turns back to Blossom and gives her a critical eye. _HMPF, those girls think they are braver than us just because they've faced monsters before? We'll see about that._ Brick thought.

"Alright, how about this? I'll give you a chance to prove it."

Everyone looked at Brick like he was nuts.

"You and your sisters come with us to this place and we'll see which group can stay in the house the longest."

Butch immediately protested. "Brick, are you nuts? Why would you invite girls to our spook house?"

Buttercup, seeing a chance to get a little payback, says, "What's the matter Butch? Not afraid to get beaten by a girl are you?"

Butch glares at Buttercup.

"So basically, you're proposing a bet, right Brick?" asks Buttercup, completely unaffected by Butch's glare.

"Pretty much, yeah." Says Brick.

Blossom and Bubbles glance at their sister wondering what she's up to.

"What's the prize for winning?" Asked Buttercup.

"Bragging rights." Replies Brick.

Buttercup raises an eyebrow, "That's it? No way. Bragging rights are a given when betting. You have to put up something to lose when you make a wager."

Blossom grabs Buttercup's arm whispering, "What are you doing?"

Butch, surprised, and actually encouraged, at Buttercup's eagerness says, "You would be willing to part with something of yours? As much as I hate to say this, I'm impressed."

Before Buttercup can say anything more, Blossom excuses themselves for a moment and drags buttercup away to talk to her with Bubbles close behind.

Once they're a few yards away, Blossom rounds on her sister, "Buttercup, what are you doing? It's bad enough you're willing to gamble but you're willing to gamble with our sworn enemies?"

Buttercup rolls her eyes, "Blossom, you do realize that when we win, we can make them shut up for a while right?"

"**If **we win." Blossom says smartly.

Buttercup stares at her sister, "You don't believe we can beat them?"

"It's not that Buttercup, but you know them, what would stop them from cheating or purposely scaring us just to make us lose? Then we'd either lose something of ours thanks to you opening your big mouth or worse, they might make us do something for them."

Buttercup rolls her eyes again, "You honestly think I don't realize that?"

Blossom gives Buttercup a knowing look.

"Well, guess what sis, for once, I have this all figured out."

Blossom raises an eyebrow in confusion. "How?"

"Blossom this is my area of expertise. Here's what we're going to do and I promise, you'll love it."

The boys wait a few yards away watching the girls talk when suddenly they start giggling. The boys glance at each other wondering what they are laughing about and when the girls turn around grinning ear to ear, the boys become confused. The girls walk back over and Blossom is the first to speak.

"Ok boys, we talked it over and we are willing to play this little game."

Now Brick is suspicious; what could've happened to make Blossom's mood go from 'no way' to 'I'm game'? Blossom continues.

"Now since we don't trust you, this is how the bet is going to work in order for us to be comfortable actually spending time with you. First, you guys can't be the reason for scaring us out of the house, i.e. jumping out of a dark room or a closet; it has to be because of the house itself. Second, we have to leave all our candy in a safe, neutral location so that neither side can even think about sneaking away and stealing it all without the other side noticing. Also I don't think any of us would want to be carrying it everywhere we go once we're at the house anyway." The boys nod at that one, they really don't want to carry it everywhere inside the house. "Third, this will be both an independent and team effort; an independent effort in the sense that as long as there is one member of each team still in the house, the entire team is still in the game; and a team effort in the sense that if that one member wins, the entire team wins. No one person is going to win the whole thing as well as the prize. Understand?"

"Prize? What prize?" asks Brick.

"Oh, right…I'll let Buttercup explain that." Blossom says while grinning like the cat that got the canary.

At this point, Brick is now actually a little worried about Blossom's change in demeanor with the bet.

"Buttercup, if you would?" says Blossom.

"Thanks sis. Like I said earlier, when betting, bragging rights are a given. You need to bet something you could lose in order to do it properly and I, or should I rather say we, all have the perfect thing in which to bet."

The boys look at each other then back at Buttercup. Butch asks, "What?"

Buttercup, hoping Butch would be the one to ask that question, responds in a sickeningly sweet tone of voice, "Oh, by betting all of our Halloween candy of course."

The boys recoil in absolute horror.

"WHAT?!" All three shout.

The girls fall to their knees laughing at the boys' reactions.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! Buttercup, you were right. That was really worth it. HAHAHAHAHA!" says Blossom.

"HAHAHAHA! Yeah. *giggle* Sorry for doubting you. HAHAHAHA!" says Bubbles.

*snicker* "I told you! HAHAHA!" says Buttercup.

The boys meanwhile, while annoyed at the girls' laughter, are still stunned at what Buttercup just said. Betting candy? Were they serious? Boomer glanced over at Butch and Brick to see if they would actually consider this but all he could tell right away was that they were speechless. Rightly so considering what the Puffs are wagering.

Butch looked Buttercup in the eye after the girls finally calmed down and asked in shock, "Are you really serious? You want to bet all of your Halloween candy?"

Buttercup looked Butch in the eye and replied, "Absolutely because unlike you three, we don't need candy. We don't treat it as if it was the most important thing on the planet. Now don't get me wrong, it would suck losing three body-pillow cases worth of Halloween candy but on the other hand, we could double it by the end of the night. We have a 50-50 chance of winning just like you. The real question though is this; are you three willing to take that chance? Are you willing to take the chance of walking…away…with nothing…at all?" Buttercup finishes in a low whisper.

The boys audibly gulp and start sweating. Could they? Would they take that chance? The boys hated being backed into a corner, especially over something like this by the Puffs no less. Brick knew the girls had them right where they wanted them; if they agree to the terms of the bet and lose, they lose all their candy. If they decline, the girls would call them out for being too afraid to be beaten by a girl. If they lose and take the candy by force, not that it would really bother them much but, the girls would hold it over their heads forever as a taunt that they can't take a lose like real men. They had no choice but to accept.

Brick sighs and says, "Alright, you're on."

Butch and Boomer look like they want to protest but they stop. They both know why Brick accepted the bet…yes even Boomer. Despite the fact he can be dense at times, he was able to work out why Brick took the girls' wager…although he was the last one to figure it out.

Buttercup responded in mock surprise, "Wow, really? Huh, you three are braver than I thought. I was positive you would've backed down after I proposed betting candy."

The boys make a face that screams, 'we are not amused.'

Blossom elbows Buttercup in the arm giving her a 'don't push it' look before speaking to Brick.

"Alright Brick, since you're the one who found this place, lead the way." Brick nods and they all take off.

* * *

><p>Robyn has just made it home when she sees 6 colored streaks in the sky heading towards the woods. At first she thought the girls were chasing the boys but actually they were following them into the woods. Robyn made a mental note to ask the girls what they were doing following the boys next time she saw them.<p>

* * *

><p>On the way to the spook house, Brick pointed out an old looking tree house where they could stash their candy for the night.<p>

"Brick are you sure this old tree house can support the weight of all our candy?" asked Blossom.

"Yes I'm sure." Replied Brick a little peeved. He was still a little sore at how the girls backed him and his brothers into a corner. "I actually found this place before I found the spook house. I thought it was a cool place to rest if need be so I replaced the floor with some fresh wood and fixed up the walls and roof a bit."

"Oh." Was all Blossom could say.

Brick nodded his head north and said, "this way, we're not too far now."

As they continued to fly on, Brick lead them closer to the ground. They were below tree top level now and were a few yards off the ground itself. They had to slow down at this point because of how thick the forest was so they just floated the rest of the way. As they passed by some large, rocky terrain, Bubbles noticed something.

"Hey what's that dark shadow over there?"

Everyone stopped and looked at what Bubbles was pointing at. Blossom said, "It's just a cave Bubbles, that's all."

"Oh."

"Yeah, and a bear lives in there too." Said Brick.

Blossom turned back toward him, "Really?"

"Yeah, I saw him go in there just before I found the house that day."

"Shouldn't he be hibernating by now?" Asked Bubbles.

"Well, if he isn't already, he should be pretty close by now Bubbles. After all, winter isn't too far away." Said Blossom.

Brick spoke up, "We're almost there."

They continued on. After about two more minutes, they finally came up to the front gate of the house. It was old and rusted and a few bars were missing on one of the gate doors and the other door had fallen off its hinges entirely. Going up the front walk way, they could catch glimpses of the house but the foliage was too thick to see through until they came out in the open and stopped.

It wasn't a house, it was an estate. At first glance, it looked like the property was 30 acres on a hillside overlooking what appeared to be a small lake but what really caught everyone's attention was the mansion itself. Large, imposing, dark, falling apart, and just having the kind of atmosphere about it that can make your skin crawl. Broken windows, cracked walls, crooked doors, squeaky shutters, various small creatures running in and out from under the foundation as well as bats flying around a tall spire at the top of the mansion. The fact that it was back-dropped against the full moon casting strange shadows, on a cloudy night, with the wind blowing through the trees only made it more unsettling.

Everyone gulps including Brick. Blossom caught it though and asked, "Why are you nervous? Aren't you the one who found this place?"

Brick turns to her with a flat face and says, "Yeah but it was broad daylight when I found this place and I wasn't standing here on the ground, I was up in the air." Brick looks back at the mansion for a moment, grins, and then looks back at Blossom. "Oh well, it'll at least make things a bit more interesting."

Blossom rolls her eyes, "Yeah, yeah. Let's just get this over with."

Everyone walks toward the front door unaware of a pair of eyes watching their every move from a room within the tall spire.

**Alright, chapter 3. **

**For future reference, I do have a job so I can't update on a regular basis but I will update when I have the time and I don't have writers block; it took me an extra day to post this chapter because I couldn't make it flow properly.**

**Also, minor spoiler, the mansion was built during the revolutionary war or the late 1700s aka the birth of our country and I'm not very good at describing something in great detail. If someone would help me with describing the mansion, as in submitting a description of their own, I would be grateful and credit you at the end of the next chapter.**

**Also, in case anyone is wondering, the girls and the boys are 6 years old in this story. Another also, I realize they have superpowers, but they are still kids and as such can get scared. Keep that in mind.**

**See you later.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ok, before I get started with chapter 4 let me explain a few things; first, sorry I didn't update sooner, I got a little distracted by Sunset Overdrive and the Evolve Big Alpha...also November 3 and 4, Call of Duty Advanced Warfare will be taking up most of my time as well but once that's out of the way, the only thing that'll keep me up will be my job. Second, I decided to go ahead and try to describe the mansion as best as I could myself so if you did submit an idea for how the mansion should look, I'm sorry for wasting your time. Third, this chapter was supposed to be a bit longer but I decided to chop it into two separate ones.**

**Alright, with all that out of the way, hears Chapter 4.**

As the kids are walking up the front walkway, Bubbles can't shake the feeling of someone watching them and it's making her uncomfortable. Blossom notices Bubbles' uneasy expression and tries to comfort her.

"Bubbles, it's going to be ok, Buttercup and I are here. Nothing bad will happen to you."

"That's not what's bothering me Blossom; I have this feeling someone or something is watching us."

Then Brick speaks up in a creepy voice, "Really? Well, I think I might know what it is."

"Really, what?" asks Bubbles.

Brick grins, "A ghost."

Bubbles whimpers at this and clings to Blossom in fright.

"It i-is not. You're j-just trying to scare m-me."

Brick shrugs his shoulders, "Maybe, maybe not. I mean after all, look at this place. I'd be surprised if this place isn't haunted, besides, when you get that creepy feeling of someone watching you, it is usually dead on. Whether it's an actual person or a ghost…well, that's for you to decide."

Bubbles buries her face into Blossom's shoulder and starts shaking quietly telling herself that Brick is just trying to scare her.

"Brick, cut it out! In case you forgot, you guys can't be the reason we leave the house. If you do scare any of us out, the bet is nullified and we all go home like the bet never even happened." Blossom angrily replies.

Brick growls slightly but decides to let it drop for now. They had just reached the front door anyway and it was time to enter the house. Brick floats up and grabs the door knob. As he does this, he gets a severe chill; the kind you get when you know something bad is going to happen somewhere down the road. He shakes it of as nothing though and turns the knob and pushes the door open.

The kids move inside as Brick shuts the door behind them. Everyone walks to the center of the front foyer and looks around. Barely 10 feet into the house and everyone is already getting the creeps; everything is coated in a fine layer of dust, there are cracks in the walls, cobwebs everywhere, the chandelier is hanging lop-sided due to one of its stabilizing tethers breaking but this is pretty typical for an old house. There is just something about the place that feels off that they can't put their fingers on.

As Brick finishes taking in the feel of the place, he says, "Oh boy, this house is really dripping with atmosphere isn't it?"

Blossom responds by saying, "It's dripping with something alright. BLECH!"

Brick turns toward Blossom and sees her looking at something to her right with a disgusted look on her face. He turns to see what she's looking at and sees what looks like a slime mold growing on the wall.

"Cool, a slime mold. I've always wanted to see one of those." Says Brick as he walks up to touch it…and does. "Yeeeewww-hoo-hoo-hoo, slimy."

"UGH, boys." Says Blossom.

Brick rolls his eyes at that and then has an idea.

"Alright, now that we're here, let's split up and look through the house to find the best spot to wait to see who freaks out first."

"Are you sure we should do that dude?" Asks Butch.

"Yeah, isn't that when bad things start happening in horror movies?" Asks Buttercup.

Bubbles whimpers again.

"Buttercup," Blossom says while sternly looking at her sister.

Looking a bit sheepishly at Blossom for scaring Bubbles again Buttercup says, "Sorry. Anyway, how should we split up?"

"I say we stay in our groups. Buttercup, you and Bubbles stay with me and the boys can stay together."

Brick turns to Blossom and says, "Uhhh, yeah, no Pinkie. You keep saying that we can't scare you out of the house right?" Blossom nods at this. "Well why would you want us to stay in our own group if you're that worried about us doing just that? If we stayed in our own group and you three went off on your own where you couldn't keep an eye on us, what would stop us from trying to scare you?" Blossom stared at him in disbelief. One, she couldn't believe she didn't think of that and two, the fact that Brick decided to explain it to her instead of taking advantage of her lack of judgment was such a shock.

"Why did you just explain that to me? You could've taken advantage of my mistake."

"Yeah dude, that's what I would've done." Says Butch. Everybody else appeared just as shocked.

"Because, if I did do that, you would hold that over our heads forever Pinkie. I saw what you three did back in the neighborhood when you laid out the terms of the bet; if we refused, you'd of called us chicken for being afraid to lose to a girl, if we accepted and lost, we lose all our candy, if we lost and decided to take the candy by force, you would say we can't take a lose like real men!" Brick seethed. "I don't like being backed into a corner like that but at the same time, I actually have to give you credit for coming up with something so devious that our only option would be to accept the bet and hope to win." Brick finished.

Blossom blinked and actually had to smile just a little bit, "Well Brick, I guess you're a bit more perceptive than I originally gave you credit for."

Brick gave her a flat look, "Don't patronize me. Anyway, so that nobody gets paranoid, we're going to split up by colors, that means; Butch, you're going with Buttercup, Pinkie, you're with me, and Boomer, you get to stick with the literal scaredy cat." Brick finishes while grinning since Bubbles is dressed as a cat.

Blossom and Buttercup stiffen at this and Bubbles tries to glare at him but can't really do it because she is pretty scared.

Before they move out though, Bubbles notices Boomer is feeling along the wall for some reason. "Boomer, what are you doing?" Everybody else turns toward Boomer. "I'm feeling for the light switch, it's too dark in here and I'd like to see where I'm going." Everybody let's out a sigh and gives him a look that says 'really.' Then Brick says what's on everyone's mind, "Boomer, we're in a very old house. Even if you do find a light switch, there isn't going to be any..." suddenly the lights come on, "...electricity?" Brick finishes surprised. Boomer looks over at Brick all smug. Brick just glares as a response.

"What the...how does this place still have electricity?" Asked Blossom.

"Good question Pinkie." replied Brick.

"Are you sure this place is abandoned Brick?" Blossom asks narrowing her eyes.

"It has to be, I mean, who in their right mind would still live in a house like this? I did find this place just last month so maybe the city hasn't cut off power and utilities here yet."

Blossom thought about it and decided that was a good explanation for the time being but still said, "Well let's hope you're right on that Brick because if someone does still live here, we are trespassing and we'll have to leave, not to mention the bet will be off."

Brick sighed, "Alright, fine." And with that, the kids split off into there groups.

* * *

><p>As they spread out through the house, the reds find the den. A fireplace is the center point of the room with a marble mantel that has what appears to be colonial style carvings in it. There are also a couple of chairs, a couch, and a trophy of a 12-point buck hanging over the fireplace. Next to one of the chairs is an end table that has an ash tray and a few books sitting on it. Blossom floats over and picks up the first book on top.<p>

"Wow, a first edition of The Great Gatsby."

"The what?"

Blossom sighs, "The Great Gatsby Brick. It's about this guy who became friends with this really rich man and this rich man kept throwing these really extravagant parties practically every night in the hopes that this one young woman he really liked would come to one of them so he could talk to her."

Brick raises an eyebrow before replying, "Yeah, don't care, let's move on." Brick floats out of the room and Blossom growls under her breath, "Uncultured jerk."

"I heard that." Brick says back.

Next, they find what appears to be a study. The room has a desk and a large bookshelf. Brick eyes Blossom and says, "If you find another book that you like, keep it to yourself because I don't care and I don't want to know, got it?" Blossom just glares at him and nods, "I got it."

Instead of going for the bookshelf though, she looks through the desk first. She opens the main drawer and the first thing she sees is a land deed. She picks it up and sees that it's the deed to the house they are in and gasps when she reads through it. Brick, hearing Blossom gasp, floats over.

"What's the problem?" He asks somewhat annoyed.

Blossom shoots him a sideways glare and says, "I just found the deed of who owned this place, when it was built, and how big the property is."

Brick rolled his eyes. "OK, so?"

Blossom looks back at the deed and says, "The mansion was built around 1770 just before the Boston Massacre and was owned by a James Harlot. **(A/N yes I realize what "harlot" actually means just go with it)** James Harlot was a loyalist, which means he supported the British Empire during the revolutionary war, and let the red-coats use his mansion as a storage area for the battle of New York. After the battle, the red-coats never came back for their remaining supplies so he just kept it. Wow that means there might still be some weapons from the war in the house somewhere."

Brick looks underwhelmed at this information but remembers the part about the property's size, "How big is the property? Just out of curiosity of course."

Blossom looks back over the deed and finds the information she was looking for, "It's over…oh wow, 150 acres." Blossom says.

"Oh. Is that big?" Asks Brick.

Blossom looks at Brick and says, "Well, considering that one acre is 43,560 sq. feet, yes Brick it is big. In fact, it's huge. This Property is much bigger than what we saw walking up the front walkway."

Brick rolls his eyes, "Ok, I get it, the property is huge and it has a historical significance to it with a possibility of finding old weapons from the revolutionary war somewhere inside." He finishes unimpressed.

Blossom is about to tell him to stop being such a jerk when they both hear a blood-curdling scream.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Blossom and Brick's eyes go wide and Brick says, "WHAT THE HELL?! Did your sister find a dead body or something?"

"BUBBLES?!" Blossom shrieks and flies out of the room at high speed in search of her sister with Brick close behind.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, the Greens found the dining room with a table that could seat twelve. Two candelabras sat at either end and all twelve seats were set complete with plates, utensils, and glasses. Floating from one end of the room to the other Buttercup said, "Wow, I wonder why they left the table set."<p>

Butch replies, "What do you mean?"

Buttercup says, "Well, I mean, if someone used to live here and then they left, why would they leave all this silverware just sitting here?"

Butch looks back at the table for a moment then looks back at Buttercup, "Well, people don't always take everything with them when they move out of a house right? Maybe they just left it here like everything else we've seen so far like the furniture and whatnot."

Buttercup waves her hand dismissively and says, "Yes I know that but people would still at least put the silverware away."

Butch looks back at the table again and shrugs, "You may be right but who cares, what's the point?"

Buttercup thinks about it and decides that for once Butch is right, really, who cares. When she looks up, she sees Butch opening a nearby swinging door and goes over just as he says, "Oh boy, I found the kitchen."

Buttercup looks inside and sure enough, it is indeed the kitchen. Both of them float in and look around. Butch immediately opens the fridge but sighs sadly when he finds it empty.

Buttercup looks at him strangely, "Did you really think you were going to find food in there?"

"Hey a guy can hope can't he?"

Buttercup shakes her head, "You know, even if there was food in there, I bet it wouldn't have been safe to eat despite the fact it was kept cold."

Butch gives her a challenging look and says, "Oh yeah? Well guess what Buttercup, you are talking to someone who can swallow calamari in one gulp."

Buttercup recoils in disgust, "What? You can eat and keep down raw squid?"

Butch grins, "Yep sure can. I have an iron stomach. Even Brick and Boomer look at me like I'm some kind of alien or something whenever I eat sushi because the idea of eating raw fish makes them both queasy. With Brick being the leader and telling us what to do all the time, it is nice to know that I can do something he can't."

Buttercup nods with him on that knowing where he's coming from but before she can go into detail about it, a blood-curdling scream disrupts her train of thought. Both the Greens freeze and their faces pale.

Butch turns to Buttercup. "Uhh, was that your sister?"

They both hear Blossom shriek from somewhere in the house, "BUBBLES?!"

Buttercup flies out of the kitchen in the blink of an eye.

"Hey, wait up!" Shouts Butch.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, the Blues came across the living room. A very large and spacious room with a couple of easy chairs and a coffee table with a couple of old glasses sitting on it. Boomer, being a little curious, picks up one of the glasses and sees a residue at the bottom. As he brings the glass a little closer to get a better look at it, a sharp smell hits him and he recoils away coughing setting the glass back down.<p>

Seeing this, Bubbles comes over from looking at an old painting and asks if he is ok, "You ok Boomer?"

Boomer gives her a sideways glance and says, "Yeah I'm fine, *cough* it's just there's a sharp smell of…something in that glass."

Bubbles looks at the glass and takes a quick sniff herself. She immediately jerks back and coughs as well, "Oh yeah, *cough* I don't know exactly what that is, or rather was, but it's definitely alcoholic." *cough*

Boomer looks at Bubbles and asks, "How do you know that?"

Bubbles blushes a little and says, "This one time, the Professor had a few of his old friends over and I was in the kitchen looking for something to eat. After I got myself a plate of cheese and crackers to take back up to our room and share with Blossom and Buttercup, I noticed this red cup that had this sweet smell to it and some other smell that I couldn't quite place. I took a sip and immediately spit it out coughing violently. It burned my mouth and throat since I swallowed a tiny bit of it. The professor came in just as the cup touched my lips so he didn't have time to warn me that it was fruit punch with a strong liquor called scotch mixed with it. He helped me get through the coughing spell and told me to never drink from a red cup or any other cup or glass that I didn't know what was in it again. I promised I wouldn't and I passed that message to Blossom and Buttercup after I got back upstairs."

Boomer raised an eyebrow, "Scotch?"

Bubbles nodded, "Yeah. I don't know why adults like that stuff. Like I said; it burned the back of my throat when I swallowed it."

Boomer shrugged, "Eh, adults are weird. Anyway, go down the hall and look in that first door on the left and I'll check this one."

Bubbles nodded and floated down the hallway. Boomer opened his door and found it was only a closet with a few old articles of clothing. "Oh wow, this is really cool." Boomer said, voice dripping with sarcasm. Suddenly, he heard Bubbles let out a blood-curdling scream that makes his face pale. Boomer flies down the hallway and Bubbles flies right into him clinging on for dear life. Boomer looks down and sees and feels Bubbles shaking in absolute terror; granted, Bubbles is the easiest Puff to scare but this is something a bit more serious. Just as he was about to ask what happened, Boomer hears the others, primarily Blossom and Buttercup, fly down the hall.

"Bubbles what happened?! Are you ok?!" They both ask simultaneously. Brick and Butch fly in right behind them and see Bubbles clinging to Boomer.

Butch speaks first, "Uh Boomer, is there a reason pigtails there is attached to you like a barnacle to a ship?"

Boomer gives Butch a flat stare and says, "You mean other than the fact that she is absolutely terrified and I happened to be the first person she bumped into?"

Butch just returns the flat stare. Then Brick speaks up, "Never mind that, just tell us what made her scream like that. Did she find a corpse or something?"

"Brick, shut up! That's not funny!" Blossom shouts.

"Hey, calm down Pinkie. For once, I wasn't trying to be funny so don't blow up in my face right now, alright." Retorts Brick angrily.

While Brick and Blossom stare each other down, and Boomer is still trying to work out how to get Bubbles to let him go without making things worse, Butch floats past them to look into the open room and his eyes widen at what he sees.

"Whoa, what the hell is this?"

**Again, sorry for the delay. After I get Call of Duty AW out of the way I'll have a little more time to write this story. I also realize it is no longer Halloween but I'm not going to leave you all hanging. Later.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Well, people kept begging me to post the next chapter so here it is, enjoy.**

**Ok chapter 5 here we go. **

"Whoa, what the hell is this?" Butch asks surprised. Everyone turns toward Butch to see him looking into the room Bubbles came running from.

Buttercup asks, "What's in there?"

"Trophies." Replies Butch.

"Huh?" Everyone but Bubbles replies at once.

"Yeah, trophies." Butch says and goes inside.

Everyone looks at each other and goes in after Butch. When they do, Blossom and Buttercup understand immediately why Bubbles let out a blood-curdling scream; the room was filled with hunting trophies; bears, wolves, coyotes, birds of prey, antelope, any number of big cats, deer, rabbits, squirrels, crocodiles, a massive 35 foot long anaconda, there was even an elephant head and a couple of komodo dragons, amongst other countless examples. And with Bubbles being the animal lover that she is, especially to all the cute ones, her sisters knew how upsetting this kind of thing can be to her.

Butch thought the whole thing was awesome, "Wow, this is so cool. The last guy to live here must have been a big game hunter."

Boomer thought it was a little creepy having that many trophies, "Or he was one of those kinds of people who had an obsession with killing things."

Brick was still trying to understand why Bubbles let out that scream, "So, why did pigtails scream? It's just a room filled with stuffed animals."

Blossom explained, "Brick, Bubbles is an animal lover. Seeing something like this is very upsetting to her so I'm not surprised she screamed the way she did."

Brick looked at Blossom for a moment then face palmed. "You mean to tell me that this room filled with game trophies is what made her let out a scream normally reserved for finding a dead body or witnessing bloody murder?"

Blossom glared at Brick and replied somewhat angrily, "To her Brick, this is just as bad as either of those two examples you just gave."

Brick just shakes his head. Then Boomer speaks up.

"You know, I can kinda see why this would give her the creeps."

Brick glares at Boomer, "What are you doing siding with them, huh?"

Boomer waves his free hand, since Bubbles is still clinging to him, and says quickly, "It's not that I'm siding with them Brick, it's just, this room is kind of creepy. I mean, look over there, there's a chair in the center of the room and all these trophies are sitting in such a way that they all look over at it. Seriously, what normal person would sit in a room and have a bunch of old, dead-eyed animals just staring at him while he sat there reading a book or whatever?"

Everyone blinks and looks around the room. Boomer was right...again. It was a little creepy the way the trophies were arranged.

"Boomer does have a point," Buttercup says after a brief moment.

"Yeah, and that's the second time he was right about something tonight." Says Brick.

"Second, when was the first?" Asked Blossom.

"When he stopped you and me from trading blows earlier after we criticized each other's costumes."

Blossom blinked, "Oh yeah."

"Anyway," Boomer starts, "how do I get your sister to let me go Blossom?"

Blossom looks over at Boomer who has a somewhat pleading face eyeing Bubbles. Blossom gives a small smile shaking her head and says, "Well, usually when she's this scared, it's best to let her calm down on her own so just take her away from the trophies, like over in that other room." Blossom points at an adjacent room with a window in it. Boomer sighs but nods and takes Bubbles out of the trophy room and truth be told, he was glad to be out of that room himself.

* * *

><p>After the blues float into the next room, Boomer hears Blossom mention something to Buttercup about a land deed she and Brick found in something called a study. Boomer thought 'study' was something you did for a test or something like that but decided not to ponder on it since he still has Bubbles clinging to his left arm. He pokes Bubbles on the cheek and says, "Hey, uh, you can open your eyes now. We're in a different room."<p>

Bubbles says in a small voice, "You promise? I don't want to see those dead eyes again."

Boomer blinks, then sighs. She really was scared by what she saw. "I promise, just open your eyes."

Bubbles opens her eyes and looks around. They appear to be in a small parlor room with a futon and minibar in the corner. As she looks back at Boomer, she can see a part of the trophy room and their siblings talking about something over his shoulder. Boomer coughs to get her attention. "Yes?" "Can I have my arm back now?" Bubbles blinks then looks down at Boomer's arm in her death grip. Blushing, she finally let's go of his arm, "Sorry. It's just, seeing so many animals stuffed and mounted like that, the cute ones like the rabbits especially, is just so sad for me. I know you and your brothers couldn't care less about it but I, well..." Bubbles tried to find the right words but Boomer cut her off, "No, I get it believe it or not," Bubbles turns to Boomer wide eyed as he continues, "granted, the 'cute' ones as you say, are a bit beyond my caring for emotionally like you do but I'm not heartless either. A few are one thing, if someone has to kill and mount animals to make themselves feel like they are top of the food chain then that is their choice; but an entire room full of them and having them all facing a single chair in the center of the room where said person can sit and have all of them looking at him? That's just creepy."

Bubbles shivers at that, she almost forgot about the chair in the center. What kind of person **would** sit in a room like that? While Bubbles was thinking about this, she noticed Boomer was looking out of the window and squinting hard. "Boomer, do you see something?" she asked as she floated next to him to look out the window as well. "I'm not sure. It's hard to see because of the heavy fog out there now." Bubbles glanced at Boomer quickly before looking outside once more and realized he was right, a heavy fog had rolled in sometime between them setting foot inside the mansion and now. "Well, what do you think you see?" Bubbles asked. Boomer pointed as he said, "There's this moving shadow over there, see it?" Bubbles had a hard time seeing through the fog but she was just able to make out something moving around out there. A chill went down her spine and she outwardly shivered. Bubbles called out to Blossom and Buttercup, "Girls, could you come in here please?" Blossom and Buttercup, along with Brick and Butch, came in a moment later. "What is it Bubbles?" Asked Blossom.

"Well, Boomer and I think there is someone or something moving around outside. You can see them, or it, from here." Blossom and the others blink in surprise and float over and look out the window where Boomer and Bubbles are pointing and sure enough, they do see a shadow through the fog. Everyone exchanges a nervous glance but Blossom notices something. "Hey, that shadow has a human shape to it." she says before narrowing her eyes and turning to Brick. "Brick are you absolutely sure this place is abandoned?"

Brick looks over at Blossom and sees she has a suspicious/angered look on her face and flinches slightly, "It was...er, is. It is abandoned."

Blossom continues staring at Brick with her ticked expression, "Then who is out there right now?"

Brick replies defensively, "I don't know. For all we know, it could be a ghost, it's a haunted house after all."

Blossom grits her teeth, "Brick, if you committed a B&E and dragged us into, not only will we all be in trouble but the bet will be off."

"Hey wait a minute Pinkie, I **turned** the knob on the front door, I didn't kick the door open. How would this be a breaking and entering offense if I didn't break anything?"

"That doesn't matter Brick. If someone still lives here and we entered their home without their permission it's still technically breaking and entering." Blossom finished smartly.

Before Blossom can get into a real rant about the possible situation they were in, Brick said, "Ok how 'bout this, let's just go out there and see who it is. Chances are, they're just like us, they're looking around for spooky places to look at for Halloween kind of like how people drive around at Christmas time to look at all the lights." Blossom continues to glare at Brick for a few more moments before sighing and saying, "Fine, but if they do live here, the bet is off and we are leaving." Brick nods, "Fair enough."

* * *

><p>They float back down stairs and find the back door. Once they step outside, they are immediately surrounded by thick fog and can barely see more than a few yards in front of them. They head out in the direction they thought they saw the shadow until they come to an old rod iron fence which they float over. Within five seconds of doing so, they come up to a large flat rock which they stop at for a moment to discuss their lack of vision.<p>

"Ok, this sucks." Said Brick. "I can't see a damn thing in this pea soup thick fog."

"Brick, watch your language." Blossom says smartly.

Brick gives Blossom a 'really' look before speaking his mind, "What are you Pinkie, my mother? Why should I watch my language?"

"Because," Blossom began, "it isn't polite to use words like that nor do I like to hear them."

Brick nearly chokes on his laugh, "pfffftttt, polite? Polite? Me? Where have you been Pinkie? Since when have I ever been polite in the time we've known each other?"

Blossom opens her mouth but closes it almost immediately having nothing to say. Instead she growls and just mutters, "Just do me a favor and restrict it to extreme circumstances alright?"

Brick grins and says, "Sure Pinkie. Whatever you say." Blossom glares at him.

At this moment, everyone hears a small gasp followed by Butch saying, "Uhh, Brick. I just realized something."

Brick turns to Butch and asks, "What?"

Butch replies, "This flat stone we're sitting on..."

"Yes..." says Brick.

"Uhh, I think it's a stone casket." Butch finishes.

Everyone turns to Butch with wide eyes and looks down at the stone they're sitting on more closely. After a moment, Boomer confirms what everybody didn't want to hear, "He's...he's right. We are sitting on a stone casket." He says startled. Everyone quickly jumps up into the air.

Bubbles asks, "W-why is there a casket sitting out here?"

"Is there someone in it?" Asked Boomer.

Everyone turns to Boomer with a look that screams, 'did you really have to say that?' Boomer rubs the back of his head and says, "Sorry."

Blossom turns her attention to the casket and uses her x-ray vision to look inside the casket. Sure enough, the casket is **occupied **at the moment and she shivers.

"Well, that's comforting to know we were sitting on some guy's grave huh?" Brick unhelpfully supplies with a nervous half grin. Blossom just gives him a flat stare. There is nothing funny about this; it's this man's final resting place, the least anyone can do is show them the proper respect and not use their tomb as a chair.

It was at this moment, when Blossom looked up from her internal thoughts that she realized something truly disturbing; she could see other large stone structures nearby. Looking closer, she could see smaller ones jutting up from the ground itself and all of them had crosses on them. She gasped loudly. Everyone looked at her expectantly and waited for her to explain what startled her. When she didn't say anything, Buttercup tugged on her arm, "Blossom, what's the matter? You look like you just saw a ghost." After Buttercup said those words, she immediately flinched and everyone glanced at Buttercup before looking back at Blossom. Buttercup asked, "You didn't actually see a ghost did you?" Blossom looked over at her sister and said, "No I didn't see a ghost," everyone let out a breath, "but I did just realize we're in a...a cemetery." She finished with a strained voice. Everybody's eyes went wide and looked in the direction she was and saw she was right. There were more caskets, tombstones, crypts, and a large mausoleum at the far end of the cemetery. Everyone was speechless.

Brick was the first to find his voice, "Ok, Pinkie, you're supposed to be the smart one so I'll ask you; who and why would someone put a cemetery in their backyard?"

Blossom stuttered, "M-maybe it's a family cemetery and...and, uh..." Blossom knew that wasn't right before she even started speaking. While some families would have their own personal graveyards on their property, they wouldn't be as big as the one they currently saw. "To be honest Brick, I'm not really sure why there's a cemetery out here. It's too big just for one family to use and just from the few tombstones we can see, none of them have the same last names."

Before she could say more, Butch grabbed everyone's attention one more time, "Uhh guys, look over there." He said in a low whisper while pointing.

Everyone turned and saw a figure wearing what appeared to be a cloak and hood several yards away from them kneeling next to one of the tombstones. Everyone gasped.

"What the...where did he come from." Brick asked.

"I don't know. He wasn't there earlier...right?" asked Blossom.

"I don't think so." Responded Buttercup.

In the background, Blossom and Buttercup could hear Bubbles start to whimper so Blossom quickly cleared her head and let the rational part of her brain make an intelligent statement, "Bubbles, it's ok. Chances are, that's the person you and Boomer saw earlier." Bubbles glanced at Blossom, then glanced at the man again, then glanced back at Blossom and smiled, "Yeah, your right. That's who that is, it has to be." Blossom nods at her then gets a serious look on her face and turns to Brick.

"Now remember Brick, if he lives hear and we..." she starts but Brick cuts her off.

"Entered his house without permission, the bet is off and we go home and blah, blah, blah, blah. I know. Let's just go over there and ask him already." Brick finishes annoyed now that he has regained his attitude and floats over to the man. Blossom shakes her head at his renewed attitude but drops it this time and follows him.

With the others staying back and watching, the reds approach the kneeling man and try to get his attention. Brick calls out first, "Yo dude, this your place or are you just looking around like we are?" The man doesn't replay. Brick tries again, "Hey, can you hear me dude or are you deaf." Blossom shushes him.

"Brick shush." she says angrily. She turns toward the man and says sweetly, "Sorry sir but my counter-part here doesn't know the meaning of the phrase 'be nice'. Do you live here sir?" Still, the man says nothing to them, in fact he doesn't even show any sign that he has even acknowledged their existence. Blossom tries again, "Uhh, sir, are you ok?" Still nothing. Blossom blinks while Brick raises an eyebrow and they both glance at each other. Behind them, the blues and greens are exchanging glances as well at the man's unresponsive nature.

Brick, who has had enough, floats up behind the man with the intention of turning him around by force. "Ok, that's it. You know dude, it's not nice to ignore people who are trying to talk to you." Blossom tries to grab Bricks arm to stop him but she's too slow and misses with her lunge and Brick places his hand on the man's shoulder...or that's what he tried to do as his hand went straight through it. Brick freezes wide eyed, Blossom gasps, Bubbles makes a high-pitched squeak, Boomer pales, and Buttercup asks distressed, "Did Brick's hand just go through his shoulder?" To which Butch simply replies in equal distress, "Yes. Yes it did."

Blossom manages to find her voice but it cracks, "B-Brick, uhm..." but she can't get much more than that to come out so instead she grabs his arm and tries to pull him back. Brick doesn't say anything but he does start to back away from the man but both he and Blossom stop when the man finally shows movement; he straightens his back and rests his hands on his knee while slowly turning his head. Brick and Blossom see that his face is unnaturally pale with his dark veins contrasting the color of his skin, they see that his right eye is a milky white color; no pupil, no iris, just all milky white. When the man pulls his hood back however, the kids saw the most horrifying thing they had ever seen; the man was missing almost half his face. Ragged, red, flesh hanging off his cheek, shattered cheek bone sticking up at odd angles, the bottom and side of his skull was visible, bits of his hair were matted with dried blood, the left ear was completely gone and worst of all, his left eye was just dangling by the optic nerve swinging level with his chin.

Everyone shrieks in absolute horror and Brick flies back so quickly and violently that he and Blossom crash into the ground. After they stop tumbling and sit up, Blossom finds herself hiding behind Brick staring at what she can only describe as some kind of zombie like apparition that is staring right back at them with its one good eye. It feels as though her heart has stopped or at the very least has skipped a beat; she couldn't believe she was looking at a real ghost. Brick feels as though he can't move, the zombie/ghost figure is just so terrifying that it's like its gaze keeps him from moving but when the figure stands up and starts walking towards them, he's finally able to make his body move and starts back-pedaling. This in turn makes Blossom jump up and helps Brick get to his feet before they, and the rest of their siblings, fly back to the mansion as fast as they can.

* * *

><p>Once they were back inside the mansion and had slammed the door shut and barricaded it for good measure, everyone collapsed to the ground. Brick and Blossom were beyond pale; they both looked like they were going to throw up they were so scared. Blossom was on the verge of hyperventilating, although the Puffs have fought criminals and beat them up, they've never hurt someone so bad that they cracked open somebody's head. Brick was actually clutching his chest trying to make his heart slow down, as bad as the Ruffs were, they'd never hurt anyone that badly either and for the first time in his life, Brick felt sorry for someone. He could only imagine what happened to that man at the end of his life to make half his face disappear.<p>

Buttercup and Butch were also trying to calm down. Both greens had a cold sweat going and were actually coughing trying to get their breathing under control. Buttercup finally found her voice and was the first to speak, "Did that really just happen?! Did we really just see a real ghost?!"

"Yeah, we did. We really did see a ghost, a real ghost." Replied Butch.

Buttercup and Butch looked at each other for a couple of moments, still shaking from the adrenaline coursing through their veins. Suddenly, they both cracked small smiles, snickered once, then twice, then broke out into full on laughter.

"pffftttt HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Brick and Blossom jumped at the sudden sound and looked at their green siblings in surprise. "Wha-what are you two laughing about?" asked Blossom.

"Because Blossom," Buttercup started, "we just saw a real ghost on Halloween!"

"Yeah," Butch continued, "not to mention in a real haunted house. Brick, good job finding this place man, I haven't had a good jolt to the system like that since that time we were messing around with that weird lightning gun we found in Mojo's pad this summer."

Blossom blinked and looked at Brick, "Li-lightning gun?"

Brick looked at Blossom and replied, "I'll tell you some other time but for now," he said turning back to Butch and Buttercup, "what is wrong with you two? How are you laughing about this?"

Butch and Buttercup look at each other and shrug, "I don't know, maybe one of the things we have in common is that we both enjoy a good scare." says Butch.

Blossom just shakes her head, "You guys are nuts!"

Buttercup looks back and forth between Brick and Blossom and cracks a grin while she nudges Butch and says, "Hey look Butch, our fearless leaders are actually starting to lose their cool." she says in a mocking tone. Butch immediately catches on and cracks his own wicked grin, "Hey yeah, you're right. How unfortunate."

Brick and Blossom both stiffen at this and Blossom says with a cutting glare, "HEY! You two were behind us and a few yards away while Brick and I were literally face to face with something that had only **half** a face!"

Brick seethed, "I can't believe I'm saying this but, for once I'm in complete agreement with Pinkie. If you two were the ones who were face to face with it like we were, then it would be you two who would be losing their cool."

"Yeah!" agreed Blossom.

Butch and Buttercup looked at each other for a moment then they turned back to the reds. "Yeah, you're right Brick." Said Butch.

Buttercup grinned again, "But since it **was** you two Blossom, we'll still take advantage of your misfortune." Both greens started laughing again.

Blossom was about to let Buttercup have it when Brick interrupted her thoughts, "Hey Pinkie, can I slug your sister right now?"

Blossom snapped over to see Brick gritting his teeth and looking back and forth between her and the greens. She blinked then grinned as she replied, "Only if I can smash Butch's face into the nearest wall."

Brick was surprised by that answer but nonetheless cracked a grin at Blossom and said, "Alright, deal," and they shook hands on it.

Now Butch and Buttercup had stopped laughing and were trying to placate their enraged siblings, "Hey, whoa, wait a minute you two," Butch began, "let's talk about this." He said with a nervous face. Buttercup was backing up waving her hands in defense too when she stopped. She looked around for a moment and then realized something. "Uhh, Blossom, where's Bubbles?" Blossom's enraged face was replaced with a confused one almost instantly, "Huh?"

"Where's Bubbles? I don't see her anywhere." Blossom quickly glanced around and saw that Buttercup was right, Bubbles wasn't here. "Bubbles?" she asked. Then Butch said, "Hey, Boomer's gone too." When Butch said that, Brick looked around just like Blossom did and realized that he wasn't here either. "Hey, where are those two?"

Blossom and Buttercup felt the first flicker of panic set in just as they all heard something fall in the kitchen. They all looked at each other and flew off to the kitchen. When they got there, they saw a bowl wobbling on the floor and they realized that was what made the sound so something just came through here. Blossom heard a very faint sound coming from the refrigerator and motioned with her head to everyone and they nodded. They floated over and Blossom grabbed the door handle and opened the door. A pair of screams were heard and everyone jumped back only to see Boomer and Bubbles hiding in the fridge.

Everyone stares wide eyed until Butch cracks up. "Let me get this straight you two," Butch began half laughing, "you guys see a ghost, fly back to the house and the first place you think to hide is in the fridge?"

Boomer looked sheepish and said, "Uhh, well, I was following her."

"WHAT!? You were the one who said 'let's hide in the kitchen.'

"Yeah, but you were the one who went for the fridge."

"Never mind you two." Brick said exasperated. "Just never...ugh forget it. Look, is there any food in there? I need something to calm my nerves."

"Sorry bro," Butch explained, "but Buttercup and I already came through here and the fridge is empty."

Brick looked back at the fridge and noticed the freezer. "Did you check the freezer section?"

Butch and Buttercup looked up and saw the freezer at the top of the fridge. They both face-palmed, "We didn't notice this thing had a freezer section so no." said Butch.

Boomer and Bubbles, who had finally calmed down, floated up to take a look. Boomer opened the door and looked inside but frowned, "Rats, just ice."

"Wait, ice? That's it?" Asked Brick.

"Yep." said Boomer.

Bubbles gasped in surprise and said, "Boomer, that isn't ice."

Boomer raised an eyebrow, "It isn't?" Bubbles shook her head. "Then what is it?"

"It's...it's a...diamond." Boomer's eyes bugged out at that while everybody else shouted, "WHAT?!"

**phew, I've been getting a lot of reviews on this story lately. I feel as though I'm doing pretty good for a first timer.**

**Now just so you all know, this is where the real story starts, with that last line. Also, if some of you notice something familiar about the place and even the dialogue where they found the diamond, please keep it to yourself, don't ruin the rest of the story.**

**I'll try to get chapter 6 up ASAP...barring my work schedule of course. thank you for all the reviews so far.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Ok, I've gone back and revised the last 5 chapters making some minor grammar improvements as well as adding or deleting necessary or unnecessary dialogue. Also, the main bulk of this story, the next several chapters, are going to be a bit shorter but I'll try, and try being the key word, to post more than one at a time to compensate for that.**

**One more thing, for those of you who have left a review, thank you for all your support. All my reviews have been positive and/or have had constructive criticism in them. But for the ****_one_**** so far that was just an insult for the sake of being an insult, keep that to yourself please. Nobody likes to read those kinds of comments except people like you.**

**Ok, chapter 6.**

"It's...it's a...diamond." Said Bubbles.

Boomer's eyes widen at this while everybody else shouted, "WHAT?!"

"What do you mean it's a diamond?" Asked Blossom.

Bubbles pulled the ice tray out so everyone could see it for themselves. They couldn't believe what they saw, it really was a diamond. Brick immediately snatched the diamond out of the ice tray, "Gimme that." He looks it over with a critical eye. After a moment of looking at it, he says, "It's real."

Blossom is shaking her head in disbelief, "Why would there be a diamond inside an ice box?" She takes the diamond from Brick to inspect it herself.

"Good question." says Buttercup.

Then Butch speaks up, "There's a bad joke in here somewhere but I can't for the life of me figure out what it is."

"I know what it is." Says Buttercup. Butch looks at her and Buttercup says, "I've heard criminals call diamonds 'ice' before but this is ridiculous."

Everyone groans and Butch replies, "Yep, that's it."

Brick looks back up at Boomer and Bubbles, "Are there any more diamonds in there?"

The blues look in the freezer again but Boomer shakes his head, "No, there aren't anymore diamonds but there is a piece of paper in here." Boomer reaches in and pulls it out. He opens it and finds that it is a letter. "It's a letter guys." Bubbles leans in and says, "What's it say?"

Boomer glances around at everybody looking at him with anticipation then he looks back at the letter and starts reading, "It says, 'Dear Nicholas Harlot, last of kin to the Harlot name, knowing your love for food, I thought this would be the best place to hide this message and this jewel. It is only one of many in a...'", Boomer choked on his words here for just a moment before he continued, "'...in a family fortune that I hid inside the estate to keep safe from my enemies.'" Everyone is staring wide eyed at this point; there is a family treasure in the house somewhere? Boomer reads the last line of the letter with a bit of a stutter, "'T-to find the next clue to their hiding place, g-go outside, then look for the part of the house w-with its knee out.'"

"Houses have knees?" Bubbles asks confused.

Boomer just shrugs his shoulders still in shock of what the letter said.

"There is no way this is real. This has to be a Halloween prank or something." Says Blossom.

Brick looks at Blossom and says, "Pinkie, you're holding a diamond that's as big as your fist."

Blossom looks at Brick, then looks at the diamond, then looks at Brick again and says, "Yeah but...it's just...I mean, what are the odds of this actually being real? The clue I mean."

Brick glances at the letter Boomer is holding and says, "Well, there's one way to find out." Everyone looks at him expectantly. "Let's head outside and look around for something that looks like a knee."

"Outside?" Asks Butch.

"Yeah, outside. That's where the clue said to look Butch." Replied Brick.

"Where we just saw a ghost?" Asked Buttercup.

Everyone paled at that especially Brick and Blossom. But then Brick realized something, "Well, we saw the ghost in the graveyard out back right?" Everyone nodded. "Then we won't have to worry about it right now cause we're going to be looking around the house not the graveyard."

Everyone looked a little unsure still but then Blossom surprised everyone by saying, "As much as I hate to agree with anything Brick says, he's right. The chances of us even seeing the ghost again, let alone just in the graveyard where we last saw it, are fairly slim. We should be relatively safe going outside to look around the house."

Brick looked at Blossom for a moment before he said with a slightly smug look, "Ah, I knew someday you'd see things my way Pinkie."

Blossom sent him a cutting glare and said, "Don't flatter yourself you ego-maniac."

Brick scoffed at her but didn't say anything more as they all went back outside.

* * *

><p>After stepping back outside, Brick asks, "Does anybody see anything that looks like a knee?"<p>

A chorus of 'nope' and 'uh-uh' came back to him before he said, "alright, let's split up again, same as before; Pinkie and I will stay here out front, Butch, you and Buttercup go left and Boomer, you and Bubbles head right. If you find anything, speak up, got it?"

"Got it." Replied Boomer.

"Check." Replied Butch.

The blues and greens went their respective ways and left the reds alone at the front of the house. Brick looked at Blossom and saw her deep in thought. He asked, "What's wrong with you Pinkie? I thought you'd be a little peeved that I'm the one giving all the orders right now given you being the control freak and all."

Blossom gave him an annoyed look and said, "Normally I would be, you're right but, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we have not only seen a real ghost, on Halloween night of all nights, but we've also found a clue to what is essentially a treasure hunt. I mean, you have to admit, the odds of something like this happening are zero to none Brick."

Brick gives it some thought before shrugging his shoulders and saying, "You have a point there Pinkie, it is a bit of a surprise but if I've learned anything in my life so far, it's that sometimes it's better not to question anything and just go with the flow."

Blossom thought about it for a second before saying, "You know, having that train of thought, can get you into a lot of trouble."

"Yeah, you're right and it has occasionally but, it has also lead us to some of the most fun we've ever had. And I don't mean just harassing Townsville either."

"Example?" Asked Blossom.

"Well, remember after we saw the ghost and Butch mentioned messing around with a lightning gun we found at Mojo's place?"

Blossom blinked as she remembered that short conversation and said, "Hey yeah, what about that?"

Brick put his hand to his chin and said, "I'm not entirely sure if he actually built it or not because it looked kinda old and rusty like he dug it up from somewhere, but anyway, this was just after he tried to destroy Townsville for the umpteenth time using his, what does he call it, robo jojo?" Blossom nods at this knowing which particular instance Brick is referring to now. "Well, anyway, whenever you and your sisters kick Mojo's butt, the boys and I know that his lair is free range for a few days so we always go there to see what kinds of neat toys the monkey cooks up. On that particular day, just as we thought Mojo was going through a dull period due to the fact that there wasn't anything that looked interesting that we hadn't already seen before, Butch found this weird looking thing in the back room."

Blossom speaks up at this point, "This lightning gun thing we're talking about?"

Brick nods, "Yep. Also, it wasn't just called 'lightning gun' either, it had a strange name."

"Really?" Blossom asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, what was it called?"

"Wonder waffle I think." **(A/N *wink wink* I loved CoD zombies)**

Blossom blinked, "Huh?"

Brick nods in understanding, "Yeah, I thought it was pretty stupid too."

Blossom was beyond confused, who in their right mind would name a weapon 'wonder waffle?'

"Oeewww-kay, let's just ignore the name for now shall we?" she said with an amused look. "What did you do with it...as if I couldn't already guess since it's you three."

Brick gave Blossom a 'really' look before saying, "Hahaha, funny. Anyway, after looking through a few of the notes Mojo had next to the gun and saw the phrase, 'shoots electrical energy', we just picked it up and started shooting things in the lab."

Blossom was stunned. "Wait, let me get this straight. You just found a weapon of Mojo's lying on the table, a note that said, 'shoots electrical energy', and just picked it up and started shooting? What if that weapon could actually hurt you guys or worse, cause immense damage to Townsville?"

Brick shakes his head, "Pinkie relax, it didn't hurt us, and it didn't cause any harm outside of Mojo's lair. We were only able to fire it three times before it broke. The really cool thing though was that it would chain arc to other objects after shooting it so the lightning would just bounce around the whole building frying everything it touched making sparks fly everywhere. On the third shot though, the chain arcing actually came back and hit Butch square in the chest which sent him flying all the way across the room, but he got up almost immediately laughing so it didn't hurt him. It's also why he said, 'I haven't had that big of a jolt to the system since we found that lightning gun in Mojo's place', after we saw the ghost."

Blossom shakes her head again. "Does Mojo still have it?"

Brick nods, "Yeah, he does. No point in keeping the thing for ourselves since, as I said, it broke after just three shots."

Blossom nods and says, "Well, as long as Mojo can't use it anymore. Anyway, maybe we should start looking for the house's knee now don't you think Brick?"

Brick chuckles, "Yeah, good idea. We've just been slacking off this whole time instead of looking for knees on a house."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Butch and Buttercup had just floated out of sight of Brick and Blossom when Butch asked, "Why didn't your sister get upset over Brick giving the orders? I figured she'd be all over that being the control freak she tends to be."<p>

Buttercup nods, "I know, I thought it was a little weird too, but in the past when she's let something slide she normally wouldn't, it's because she's deep in thought about something. And if I had to guess, she was still stuck on the fact that we're looking for treasure now as well as being outside looking for a knee on a house."

Butch cocks his head to the side in thought before saying, "Good point." They float a little ways before Butch continues, "So, on that note, do you see anything that looks like a knee?"

Buttercup sighs, "Nope. You?"

Butch says, "Nope."

"Ah, crap. We're going to be here all night aren't we?" says Buttercup.

* * *

><p>On the other side of the house, Boomer and Bubbles are looking for the house's knee when Bubbles decides to ask Boomer something, "Boomer, can I ask you something?"<p>

Boomer looks at Bubbles and says, "Uhh, sure."

Bubbles smiles slightly and asks, "Well, why did you guys go trick or treating? We couldn't believe our ears when a friend of ours told us you and your brothers were out here tonight. We just figured you would just steal candy."

Boomer chuckled and replied, "Well, I guess that's my fault. I convinced Brick and Butch to give it a try this year and, well, here we are."

Bubbles giggled at that. Boomer continued, "But to be honest, Butch did want to steal candy and it wouldn't have taken much to get Brick on board with the idea either but fortunately, Brick realized that if we did do that, it would've given you and your sisters a reason to come and find us and ruin our night so he decided we would lay low tonight which made Butch a little crabby. In fact, Butch didn't crack a smile until we bumped into that Mitch kid and he told us that Buttercup was dressed as a nun."

Bubbles giggled again as she decided to let Boomer in on a little secret, "You know Boomer, the nun costume was only one out of three options for Buttercup this evening." Boomer looked at her with an expression that said 'continue'. Bubbles snickered, "You see Boomer, when Buttercup lost her original costume, which was supposed to be a zombie by the way, she had three choices; miss out on trick or treating, go as a nun, or go as a fluffy bunny."

Boomer's eyes went wide and then he began to crack up. "*snicker* Are you serious? *snicker*"

Bubbles smiled, "Yep."

At this point, Boomer was trying so hard not to laugh out loud, that his face was red.

"You ok Boomer? Your face is about as red as Blossom's bow." Bubbles said giggling.

Boomer took a couple deep breathes and said, "I'm fine. I'm just picturing that in my head right now and it's really funny."

Just as Bubbles was about to comment on that, a large brick fell from the roof in between the two blues with a loud thud and both blues let out a surprised yelp while jumping away.

"Yikes!" Bubbles shrieked.

"Whoa, where did that come from?" Asked Boomer.

Both of them looked up before Bubbles suggested, "Did it fall from the roof?"

Boomer looked at the roof but shook his head, "No, the roof doesn't look like it's made from bricks," he looks a bit closer at the roof and says, "but the chimney is."

Bubbles looks up and agrees, "Yeah, you're ri-" Bubbles stops. She looks at Boomer and asks, "What did you just say?"

Boomer looks at Bubbles with a confused look and says, "The chimney is made of bricks."

Bubbles gets an excited look on her face, "Boomer, that's it!"

"What's it?" Boomer asks backing up slightly at Bubbles enthusiasm.

"The part about the house's knee; it's the chimney. Get it?"

Boomer looks up at the chimney in surprise then smiles back at Bubbles. "I think you're right Bubbles."

Bubbles turns and calls out to their siblings, "Hey guys come here, I think Boomer and I have found something."

**Another chapter down. The middle of the story, what I'm on right now, is the easy part since it was the first thing that popped up in my head when I first conceived this story. I knew the beginning and ending of the story were going to be the hard parts...especially the ending because I'm still not sure how I'm going to word it properly yet but that's still a good ways away; plenty of time to figure it out.**

**Now, as I said in the last chapter, if you recognize the basic plot of the story, keep that to yourself. Please don't spoil the rest of the riddles for everyone else.**

**Oh and by the way, I'm not going to touch on the 'wonder waffle' again in this story; I just loved that gun and it is a Halloween story and CoD zombies was creepy to play so yeah, that's why I put it in the story. Oh yeah, the correct spelling of the weapon is W**underwaffe DG-2, but since Brick is bad at spelling, and he isn't German, he didn't know how to say it correctly.****


	7. Chapter 7

**Just to let everyone know, I had a head cold at the time of writing this chapter so if it seems off you know why. After I get better, I'll go back through it and revise any grammar/spelling/flow issues it has.**

**Ok, chapter 7.**

* * *

><p>"Hey guys come here, I think Boomer and I have found something!" Bubbles shouts out to their siblings.<p>

The others are next to the blues in a heart beat. "What did you find?" Asked Blossom.

"Boomer and I think we've figured out the clue."

The others looked stunned. "You mean you found the house's knee?" Butch asked surprised.

"Well, kinda." Said Boomer. "It wasn't being serious when it said 'knee.'"

"Yeah." Said Bubbles. "It was a pun."

"Ok, so it's a pun, just tell us already." Buttercup said exasperated.

"Ok, ok." Said the blues simultaneously. Bubbles looked at Boomer for a moment, waiting for him to tell them but then Boomer smiled slightly and said, "You're the one who figured it out, you tell them."

Bubbles gave Boomer a big smile and turned to the others and said, "It's the chimney. Get it?"

"The chim- oh brother." Brick groaned while face-palming.

Then Butch chimed in, "It's all the way up on the roof? Granted we can fly but still; it went from kitchen to roof in one clue? Yikes, what's the rest of the treasure hunt going to be like?"

Buttercup looked just as exasperated as Butch was but she didn't say anything. By contrast, Blossom looked pleasantly surprised. "You know, that's actually pretty clever. I mean, it probably would've been awhile before I'd have thought it would be a pun and not a serious statement."

Buttercup impatiently says, "Ok, we know where it is now, let's go up there and get it." She says as she starts to float up to the top of the roof. The others follow right behind her. Blossom looks over at Bubbles and Boomer and says, "Good job in figuring out the clue you two." The blues smile and nod back.

After reaching the base of the chimney, they look around. Boomer then says, "Hey, I can see something sparkling up at the top where the bricks are loose."

Brick says, "Good eyes Boomer, I'll go up and check."

As he does this, Buttercup is giddy with anticipation and says, "I wonder how big the diamond will be this time." Blossom looks to her sister and replies, "If there even is one up there Buttercup. Finding the first diamond may have been just a fluke regardless of what that clue said." Buttercup just gave her sister a flat look and Blossom sighed. "Ok look, I just don't want us to get our hopes up only to have them crushed. Now, if there really is another diamond and another clue up there, then I'll be more inclined to believe this treasure hunt is the real deal."

Just then, Blossom hears Brick say, "Well then Pinkie, you better start believing now because look what I just found." As Blossom looks back up at Brick, she sees him holding another diamond in his hand the same size as the first one. Everyone's eyes grow as big as dinner plates in disbelief. Blossom especially can't believe this is really happening; what **were** the odds of stumbling across a clue that would lead you on a treasure hunt?

"What about another clue? Is there one up there?" Asked Butch.

Brick blinks before looking back and seeing another letter under the brick he just found the diamond under. "Yeah there is. Hang on let me grab it and we can keep going." Just as he grabs it however, something reached up out of the chimney and grabbed him; a skeletal hand and arm. Brick's eyes go wide with fear when he is suddenly face to face with a skull faced ghost. The only problem, well, the major problem, wasn't just the fact that it was a skull ghost but that it looked like a demon skull ghost. The skull wasn't human; the eye sockets had horns on them, the eyes themselves were glowing white and looked like they were flaming, and worst of all, it didn't have a jaw but instead had mandibles with a grotesque, fleshy, mouth.

"HO...LY SHIT!" Brick screams while jumping back and wrenching his arm free of the demon's grasp. He, again, jumps away so hard and fast that he knocks over everyone behind him and they all go crashing off the roof and down to the ground. After they all come to a stop and get their bearings, they look up and freeze in terror at the sight of the skull ghost. The ghost at this point has pulled itself out of the chimney and was now floating next to it wearing what looked like a black cloak and hood that covered everything but its face, forearms, hands, and feet, and had a tattered, blood red sash wrapped around its waist, staring down at them with a literal burning gaze due to its blazing white eyes. The ghost then started speaking in a deep, demonic voice.

**"Intruders. You don't belong here. You will leave or suffer the consequences." **After it said that, its hands caught fire with the same white flame as its eyes and flung fireballs at the kids. The kids screamed and jumped out of harms way. After coming out of a combat roll, Blossom fires off an eye-laser at the skull ghost but just misses over its shoulder. The ghost dodges to the right, flies down off the roof, and lets loose with more white fire in the form of a whip. The whip tip cracks near Buttercup and the area within a 15ft radius lights on fire. Buttercup tries to get away from the flames but isn't quite fast enough and gets slightly burned on her left arm. "AHHHHH!" Buttercup screams. "WHAT?! This fire can burn us?!" Everyone turns to her with a shocked expression and Butch says, "You got burnt? But I thought we were fire proof." Blossom replies, "We are but this is obviously no ordinary fire." Brick responds in a smart-alec tone, "Oh really Pinkie? I wouldn't have guessed what with the fire being white instead of orange." Blossom rounds on Brick in a heartbeat and says, "Brick, now is not the time to be a smart-alec!"

Suddenly, a blue beam of energy shot out and hit the skull ghost in the chest and sent it slamming into the wall. Everyone turned and saw Boomer's outstretched hand smoking. "Boomer, nice shot dude." Butch cheered. Boomer looked over at Butch and smiled a little at the praise while nodding back. The ghost gets back up at this point and says, **"No mere mortal can truly harm me. You are only prolonging the inevitable." **Boomer looked surprised, he didn't exactly hold back with that blast. Brick gave the ghost a nasty look and said, "Oh yeah? Let's see if you really are invincible!" Brick fired his own red beam of energy at the ghost but the ghost simply fired off another fire blast and the two attacks met in mid-air and cancelled each other out. Blossom let loose with her ice breathe which did hit and manage to freeze the ghost's left arm but it used its right hand to thaw it out. The ghost caught a glimpse of Butch out of the corner of its 'eye' and threw a fire blast toward him. Butch responded by putting up his force-field and absorbing the damage. Just as the ghost was gearing up for another blast, a super-sonic scream broke through the night courtesy of Bubbles. Everyone covered their ears at the sudden sound including the ghost. When the scream stopped, an eye-laser hits the ghost in the shoulder making him stumble and then a baby blue streak slammed into it knocking it into the house's wall again sending up a cloud of dust. There was an inhuman shriek of rage as well as a scream of pain, then Bubbles was thrown out of the dust cloud by the ghost landing right at Buttercup's feet. Looking down at her sister, Buttercup saw Bubbles had a burn mark on her arm in the shape of a hand where the ghost had obviously grabbed her and was cradling it, crying in pain. Buttercup, seeing red, looked up and saw the ghost had stepped out of the dust cloud and gave it a cutting glare before charging up an energy slash and letting rip, hitting the ghost. The ghost crossed its arms in defense however and broke the attack up so that it wouldn't be sent into the wall for a third time but the attack did have an effect; a strange electrical arcing effect was created and the ghost quickly broke off the attack. **"This isn't over mortals. Leave now or you will pay for your trespassing."** Just like that, the ghost flew off into the woods as quickly as it had appeared.

Blossom called out, "Is everyone all right?" To which Buttercup replied, "No, Bubbles has a serious burn on her arm." Hearing this, Blossom rushes over to tend to Bubbles' arm. The boys meanwhile hang back and let the girls do what they needed to do as well as keep an eye out for the ghost in case it decided to attack again.

Blossom was examining Bubbles' burnt arm when Bubbles said in a strained voice, "Blossom, stop fiddling with it, you're only making it hurt more."

Blossom flinched, "Sorry Bubbles. We have to get you back home so that we can properly treat this burn."

Buttercup nods in agreement and gestures to her own burn with her head and says, "Mine too. Whatever kind of fire that was, it sure hurt."

The boys look over in surprise; sure the white fire actually being able to hurt them was a shock but still, to hear the Puffs admit to weakness like this or to withdraw from a fight was rare. The only time the girls ever did either of those two things was when they were fighting them.

Just before Blossom and Buttercup are about to help Bubbles up, she stops them. "Girls wait, we don't have to go home. I just need some water and I can fix this." Everyone looked at Bubbles like she was crazy.

"How can you fix a burn like that?" Asked Boomer.

"Yeah, normally, our chemical X healing powers would've healed any injury by now but it's still there. If our natural healing abilities don't work on their own, then how are you able to fix this?" Asked Blossom.

Bubbles smiled a little sheepishly and said, "I was going to tell you yesterday but I forgot. You see, I discovered a new power about a week ago and I wanted to practice with it a bit before I showed you."

Everyone was shocked; a new power? "Well, what is it?" Asked Blossom.

Bubbles smiled and said, "Get me some water and I'll show you."

"We didn't bring any water though." Buttercup replied.

"Hey, didn't we pass a bird bath or something when we first walked up to the house?" Asked Butch.

"Hey yeah, we did and there was water in that. Hang on, I'll be right back." Said Boomer as he took off in a flash. Five seconds later, he returned with the bird bath in tow. "Here."

Bubbles smiled, "Thanks Boomer." Bubbles floated up and put her hand in the water. There was a light blue glow and as Bubbles pulled her hand back out, the water was wrapped around her hand. Everyone's eyes widen at what they are seeing. "Bubbles...what...how are you...?" Blossom stutters. Bubbles puts her hand over her burn and exhales as she focuses her energy. The water glows brighter than before and the others watch in amazement as the burn just disappears. Bubbles then puts her hand back into the bird bath and does the same thing as before only this time grabs Buttercup's arm and heals her burn. Buttercup blinks as she can't feel any pain or tightness of skin to suggest that there was ever a burn. "Whoa. Ok, that is quite the useful power you've got there Bubbles." Said Buttercup. Bubbles just smiled. "Yeah. Granted, it'll probably be used more healing other people than us but knowing it can heal demonic fire burns is a good thing to know."

The boys are glancing at each other while watching this exchange and as much as Brick hated to admit it, Bubbles' new power was pretty cool.

"Huh, not bad." Said Brick, but quickly added, "For a girl."

Bubbles and her sisters just sent an annoyed look at Brick as their response.

Butch cleared his throat, *ahem* "anyway, uhh, Brick, do you still have the clue you found on top of the chimney?"

Brick looked over to Butch and nodded. Blossom then cut in, "Whoa, wait a minute. You still want to look for the treasure after that?"

The boys look at each other and shrug, "Sure, why not? Granted, that thing took us by surprise, both in its appearance and its power, but we've all had tougher fights then that before." Said Brick.

Blossom had to give Brick that one but she still turned to her sisters and asked them if they wanted to stay or go home. "Buttercup, what do you want to do?"

Buttercup looked her sister in the eye and said with conviction, "I want to stay. As much as I hate to agree with Brick, he is right. The only reason that ghost managed to hurt us at all was because it caught us off guard, not to mention we didn't know what it was capable of or what kind of power it had. Also, we have had tougher fights before; Mojo is tougher than that thing especially when he develops a weapon that can harm us significantly and yet we can still kick his butt any day of the week."

Blossom had to nod at that. She turned to Bubbles, "Bubbles, what about you? You wanna stay?"

Bubbles looked at the ground for a moment to gather her thoughts before she spoke, "Well, for starters, I'm not going to stand here and pretend I'm not scared because I am scared. That thing was terrifying." Brick muttered under his breathe, amused, "That doesn't surprise me." Blossom and Buttercup turn and send Brick a hard glare for the comment and are about to tell him to shove it but Bubbles beats them to it. "Being afraid is a natural human emotion Brick, just because you're afraid of something doesn't immediately make you a coward." Bubbles said with such stern conviction that everyone looked at her stunned. She started walking toward Brick as she continued, "Yes, I'm scared, terrified actually, but if I was really the 'scaredy cat' you make me out to be, I'd have left for home by now and we wouldn't be having this conversation." Bubbles is in Brick's personal space at this point and Brick has taken a step back. "However, I'm still here. I'm **brave** enough to stay despite that...thing, still being here somewhere. I'm **brave** enough to stay because I don't want to leave my sisters to deal with this thing without me, they need me and I'm not going to run out on them if they need me even if I am scared." Brick has backed into a tree trunk at this point due to Bubbles being in his face. "It's when you give in to your fear and run without looking back that makes you a coward or a, 'scardey cat', as you like to call it. There is a difference between being scared and being a coward Brick, and I'm not the latter." Bubbles finishes in a commanding tone.

Everyone is stunned silent and staring wide eyed at Bubbles, she just told off Brick and Brick isn't getting in her face about it. Brick finally finds his voice and asks in disbelief, "When did you get a backbone?"

Bubbles blinks and smiles slightly before saying, "Well to be honest, I actually have you to thank for that."

"What?" Everyone says at the same time.

Bubbles laughs. "That time I had to pretend to be Boomer remember? All the things we did that day that ended with you making me have to eat a cockroach kind of made me tougher and a bit more assertive."

Brick blinks in surprise; is he really the reason the blue puff just got in his face and told him off all while not showing a single sign of hesitance? He turns toward Blossom and Buttercup, "Seriously?"

Blossom and Buttercup look at each other then back at Brick and Blossom responds, "Well, ever since that particular day, Bubbles has been a bit more assertive and convicted in any argument or discussion we've had, so yeah."

Brick just gives a single dry laugh, "Oh, great."

Bubbles turns back to Blossom, "Anyway, as I was saying Blossom, I think we should stay. Even if that demon, thing, can hurt us, we have it outnumbered and I'll bet we have it overpowered as well. We know it's here now so I say we keep going."

Blossom sighed but nodded. "Alright Brick, you said you have the clue?"

Brick turned to Blossom and nodded.

"Ok then, let's head back inside where we can read it." Suddenly, a gunshot rang out and Blossom's witch hat was knocked off her head. Everyone ducked and turned in the direction of the shot. It was the ghost they all saw out in the graveyard and it was holding a smoking musket. The ghost then threw off its cloak and hood to reveal a red overcoat and long white pantaloons along with a sabre strapped to its hip. Blossom gasped, "It's a British Revolutionary War soldier." Brick was about to blast it when Blossom stopped him, "No Brick, we've dealt with ghosts enough for now. Everyone, inside!" Everyone glanced at each other before nodding and heading for the house. Before Blossom joined them, she swept an eye-laser blast across the ground to blind the ghost's field of view so that it couldn't fire at them again and then she joined the others just after she scooped up her witch hat.

* * *

><p><strong>Whoo-hoo! Another chapter down.<strong>

**Another diamond, another clue, a fight scene, a****nd wow Bubbles, way to give Brick a taste of Bubblevicious. We also now know a little bit more about the half-faced ghost; he's a red-coat from the Revolutionary War. And yes, I gave Bubbles the water healing ability that Katara has in Avatar the last Airbender. Also, my avatar picture is the skull ghost in this chapter.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

* * *

><p>After getting back inside with everyone else, Blossom puts her witch hat back on her head and walks up to Brick. "Alright Brick, what does the next clue say?"<p>

Brick fishes the letter from his pocket, opens it and starts reading, "Ok, it says, 'You're nearer the family jewels than before, a broken key unlocks the next door.'"

"A broken key? How does a broken key unlock anything?" Asked Buttercup.

"If this clue is anything like the first one Buttercup, it isn't being literal." Replied Blossom.

Buttercup blinked, "So it could be another pun?"

"Maybe." Said Blossom.

"Wonderful." Buttercup replied sarcastically.

Then Butch said, "You really don't like word play do you?"

Buttercup narrows her eyes and says, "You have no idea."

"Alright enough." Said Brick. "Assuming Pinkie here is right, what else would you call a key that isn't literally a key?"

Everyone looked down and thought hard.

"Umm, a keyboard?" Supplied Bubbles.

"Uhh, something that is out of key or out of tune?" Supplied Boomer.

"What?" Brick deadpanned.

"Hey you asked. We're just thinking of words or phrases that have the word 'key' in it." Said Boomer.

"Yeah but that still sounds stup-"

"No, Brick, wait." Said Blossom.

Brick turned toward Blossom. "I think they are on the right track but I can't quite put my finger on why."

Brick blinked and glanced at the others before looking back to Blossom. "Ok, then, what kind of keyboard? One for, like, a computer or something?"

"Well when you say something is out of key or out of tune, you're talking about an instrument right?" Asked Buttercup.

"Right," replied Blossom. Then Blossom's face began to light up as she turned back to Brick, "and the word 'keyboard' isn't solely linked to computers, there are keyboards in music as well."

Brick blinked at Blossom's facial expression and laughed softly, "It looks like you're on the verge of figuring it out."

Blossom nodded, "It's on the tip of my tongue but I can't quite reach it. UGH! This is driving me nuts!"

Brick laughed out loud this time, "Wow, really Pinkie? You don't say." Blossom gave him a sideways glare. Brick flinched, "Alright, alright, alright. What musical instruments have keyboards?"

"Xylophones have keys." Said Bubbles.

Brick turned to Bubbles and asked, "What the hell is a xylophone?"

Blossom explained, "It's basically a table with these musically keyed metal bars that you strike with a stick."

Bubbles blinked and said, "Yeah, what Blossom said. Also, it's kind of an annoying instrument."

"True." Said Blossom.

"Ok, what else has keys?" Asked Brick.

Everybody thought again and this time, Butch spoke up, "Pianos have keys, right?"

Everyone turned to Butch and Blossom said, "Yeah they do." Blossom then blinked as something just hit her, "Hey wait, isn't there a grand piano in the house?"

Bubbles nods, "Yeah, I saw it near the living room when we split up earlier."

Blossom nods back, "Yeah, I saw it too just after Brick and I left the den on our way to the study."

Brick shakes his head, "Ok, so?"

Blossom looks at Brick and says, "Maybe the piano has a 'broken key.' Let's go check it."

Everyone flew off to the living room and found the piano. They floated up to it and Blossom opened the cover to reveal the keyboard and sure enough, there was a broken key.

Everyone looked at each other, then back at the keyboard. "Ok, so how does a broken piano key unlock a door? It's not like we can pull it out and use it." Asked Boomer.

"What if we push it?" Asked Butch as he did just that. The key gave an out of tune note and suddenly a nearby wall unlocked and swung open to reveal a hidden room.

Everyone was stunned. "Whoa, dude nice work." Said Brick.

"Thanks bro." Replied Butch. Everyone flew inside and looked around. After a moment of searching, Buttercup found what they were looking for, "Hey guys, look what I found." Everyone turned and saw Buttercup holding the next clue and yet another diamond. "Alright!" Everyone cheered.

"Come on, let's get out of this dark room so we can read it." Said Blossom.

Back out in the living room, Buttercup opened the note and started reading, "It says, 'look for a relative who is quite old, whose face can not see, and whose hands can not hold.'"

Brick whistles and says, "Woof, that's a toughie."

Blossom nods, "Yeah, that it is. 'A relative who is old, whose face can't see, and whose hands can't hold anything.' This one is going to take a minute."

Just then, Boomer says in a harsh whisper, "Guys, hide!" Everyone quickly turns to Boomer with wide eyes but he just simply points to a moving shadow just outside the window. Buttercup, Butch, and Brick hide behind one of the large chairs in the living room and Blossom, Boomer, and Bubbles hide under the couch just as the British soldier walks past the window, he stops however and looks inside. Everyone holds their breathe as the apparition scans the room for any sign of movement. Boomer can feel Bubbles tremble in absolute terror beside him as well as hear Blossom's quickening breathing. "Blossom, I understand why you're freaking out a little since you and Brick were face to face with him earlier but why are you getting worked up too Bubbles? You didn't react like this when we saw the skull ghost earlier."

Bubbles turned to Boomer with fear in her eyes and said a timid, sad voice, "Because Boomer, unlike the skull ghost, which is some kind of demon or something else inhuman, this one used to be a human. It used to be a person just like you or me. He used to have a life before he lost...lost half of his face." Boomer blinked and looked back out the window. Bubbles was right, that soldier was once a living human being before half his face was blown off by who knows what and was now walking the earth as a lost soul.

Over with Brick, Buttercup, and Butch, Brick was trying to will his heartbeat to slow down as he was looking at the ghost close up again. Outside when the ghost took that pot-shot at them, it was a good 20 yards away from them so he wasn't close enough to see all the gruesome details of its exploded cheek. However, now it was on the other side of a window less than 20ft from him and he could see things a little too well. Beside Brick, Buttercup and Butch were somewhere between scared and ecstatic. "You know Butch, maybe there really is something wrong with us if we're getting an adrenaline rush off of being this close to a ghost that just tried to shoot us earlier." Butch glanced over at Buttercup and had to crack a grin, "Yeah, maybe." Brick just shook his head and said, "You two really are weird, you know that?" Both greens snickered at that. Suddenly, the ghost, deciding there was nothing there, moved on and walked away from the window.

Everyone crawled out of their hiding spots and regrouped. Blossom notices Brick is sweating and looks a little pale, "Brick, you ok? You don't look so good."

Brick scoffs and replies, "Look who's talking Pinkie." Blossom looked just as spooked as Brick was. Blossom shakes her head, "Look, let's just get out of this room before he comes back." Everyone nods and they all float out of the living room. As they are passing the den nearby, Blossom stops. Something caught her eye for some reason so she turns around to see if she can figure out what it was. The others notice Blossom stopped and come back to her. "Pinkie, why'd you stop?" Brick asked.

"Something around here made me stop but I don't know what it was."

The other looked at each other in confusion before Brick asked, "How can something make you stop?"

Blossom shook her head, "I noticed something, something that is supposed to be important but I can't figure out why."

Buttercup comes over and says, "Blossom, you're not making any sense." As she is saying this, the clue she found earlier falls out of her costume. "Whoops. Let's not loose that shall we."

Blossom blinks, "Wait, what was the clue again?"

"We're looking for an old relative, whose face can't see, and whose hands can't hold anything." Buttercup replies.

Blossom turns back around and looks for whatever caught her attention again. The others are wondering what's gotten into her when she suddenly snaps her fingers and says, "I've got it!"

Everyone jumps at the volume of her voice and asks, "What?"

"The clue." Blossom says smiling.

Brick says surprised, "Whoa, wait, really?"

Blossom nods.

"Well, ok, what is it?" He asks

"It's the grandfather clock." Blossom says as she turns and points at it.

"Huh?" Everybody says in unison.

"Yeah, it's an 'old relative', with a 'face that doesn't see', a clock face, and 'hands' that don't hold anything." Blossom finishes proudly.

Everyone looks up stunned but started smiling a moment later.

Brick shakes his head in disbelief, "Oh, ho, ho, ho, wow. As much as I hate to say this, good job Pinkie, I would've never been able to figure that out."

Blossom smiles smugly at Brick and said, "Wow, you of all people are admitting weakness?"

Brick gave her a flat stare and said, "Don't push your luck."

Boomer and Bubbles had just opened the compartment where the mechanics are located and are currently looking inside when Bubbles says, "Blossom you're right, look!"

Everyone turns and sees Boomer come out holding the next clue and another diamond.

* * *

><p><strong>Hey chapter 8 was written and posted within 18 hours of the last one, a new record for me. This was a short chapter so that helped a lot but hey, that just means the next one will be posted just as soon if not sooner. Seriously though, I do plan to have the next chapter out before the end of the 18th of November or tomorrow if you are reading this post on the 17th of November which is today.<strong>

**Also, and this is the last time I'll say this, if you do recognize the riddles/basic plot of the story, please don't spoil the rest of them for the other readers. Thank you.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9. Here we go.**

Boomer came out of the grandfather clock holding the next clue an yet another diamond. Blossom just shakes her head, "This is insane, I just can't believe this. I mean, really, what are the odds of us finding clues to a treasure hunt?"

Brick just smirked, "Like I said earlier Pinkie, sometimes, it's better not to ask questions and just go with the flow. You can figure out the odds later after we're done."

Blossom sighs but nods in agreement. Tonight is just turning into the night when Brick is right and it's just better to go along with what he says.

Boomer clears his throat to get everyone's attention as he opens the letter and starts reading, "Ok, here's the next clue, it says, 'There is no pendulum in this clock, so what does it lack besides a tock?'"

Bubbles raises her hand and waves it around saying, "Oh, oh, I know, a tick."

Boomer looks at Bubbles for a moment before laughing, "HA HA, that's right Bubbles, a tick."

The others look at each other confused and Blossom asks, "A tick?"

Bubbles nods, "Yeah, a tick."

Buttercup says, "I don't get it."

Boomer turns to Buttercup and asks, "What sound does a clock make?"

Buttercup blinks before saying, "Tick tock, tick tock, tick-" and then she, along with everyone else who isn't Boomer and Bubbles, face-palm and groan.

Boomer and Bubbles laugh at their siblings.

Blossom gives a dry laugh and says, "It was such an obvious answer that we immediately discarded it."

Brick pulls his hand away from his face and says, "Yeah, great, now what does 'a tick' tell us about where the next clue is?"

Everyone stops at that and Bubbles says, "Uh, good question."

Brick looks around and asks, "Anyone?"

Then Butch replies, "The attic."

Everyone immediately turns to Butch and Blossom asks, "The attic?"

Butch nods, "Yeah."

Blossom blinks, "But, how do you..."

Butch explains, "Because, the clue just basically told us point blank where to look; a tick, attic, get it?"

Brick shakes his head, "Dude, how the hell did you figure that out?"

Butch just shrugs, "I have no idea, it just clicked in my head for some reason. Why, do you think I'm wrong?"

Brick replies, "No, I think you're right."

"I agree." Says Blossom. "Let's head up to the attic and look around."

* * *

><p>Up in the attic, which is dark, dusty, covered with cobwebs, and smells a little moldy, the kids spread out in pairs again and start looking through things. As Boomer and Bubbles are floating over to a rack of clothing, they both see two pairs of eyes starring back at them and they jump away in fright and hide in a large trunk that Brick and Blossom where just about to look through and shut the lid.<p>

Brick opens the lid and asks, "What the hell is wrong with you two?"

Bubbles spoke up, "We saw two pairs of eyes looking at us over there." and she points in the direction they just came from.

"Really?" Brick asks. Meanwhile, Blossom is looking in that same direction and sees what startled them and begins giggling.

Brick, hearing Blossom giggling, turns toward her and asks, "What's so funny?"

Blossom turns to Brick with a smile on her face and says, "I know what they saw."

"What?" Brick asks.

Blossom turns to Boomer and Bubbles and says, "Guys, you saw your own reflections."

Bubbles and Boomer looked at Blossom and said, "Huh?"

Blossom begins to crack up, "You two were looking in a mirror. The two pairs of eyes you saw were your own." Blossom's now laughing at this point.

Boomer and Bubbles both turn red in the face as they realize Blossom is right, there is a mirror right where they saw the eyes. Somewhere else in the attic, Buttercup and Butch break down laughing, "pfffffttttt HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Boomer shouts out, "Butch, Buttercup, shut up!"

Brick is currently shaking his head caught somewhere between finding this funny and wanting to beret them for scaring themselves silly. He decides to let it slide since it is more funny than stupid.

"Alright you two, out of the trunk." Says Brick.

The blues get out and float over to get a better look at the mirror when Brick throws something over them. They struggle to get it off of them when Brick says, "Now don't scare yourselves again. Try to keep your cool like Pinkie and I do you scaredy cats."

Boomer and Bubbles finally get out of whatever was thrown over them and say in unison, "Scaredy cats?"

"Brick, there is a nicer way to say that you know." Blossom replies.

"Oh really? What is it?" Brick asks.

Blossom opens her mouth but nothing comes out. Then she shrugs and says, "I'll tell you once I figure it out."

Brick laughs, "Nice."

Bubbles and Boomer get angry looks on their faces but Boomer just realizes what Brick had thrown over them, it is a pair of white long johns. Getting an evil grin, he pulls Bubbles a little closer to him and he whispers his plan into her ear, "Hey Bubbles, I have an idea on how to get back at them for that little comment." Bubbles raises an eyebrow and motions with her hand for him to continue. Boomer continues, "What we'll do is put on this white piece of clothing and pretend to be a ghost and see how well those two can 'keep their cool.'" Bubbles' eyes widen before she snickers quietly and gets an evil grin herself and says, "Let's do it."

Boomer nods and they both quickly get inside of the long johns with Bubbles on the bottom and Boomer on top. They float over to Brick and Blossom just as Brick calls out to them, "Hey Boomer, you and Bubbles find anything yet?" Boomer replies in a spooky voice, "Yeeeeees."

Brick and Blossom both stiffen at the creepy voice and turn around to see a 'ghost' standing right behind them. Both reds scream and jump inside of the same trunk as Bubbles and Boomer did moments earlier and slam the lid shut. Boomer and Bubbles, poke their heads out of their 'costume' and open the lid and say, "Gotcha," and they both laugh at what they see; Brick and Blossom are actually holding onto each other in fear. Both reds eyes go wide for a moment before narrowing in anger at what their 'little' siblings did. Brick speaks first, "Oh, you two are so dead." Then Blossom gives her two cents, "Guys, that was not funny!"

Bubbles and Boomer look at each other for a moment then smirk as Boomer says smugly, "What? You two said that you could keep your cool."

Bubbles continued by saying, "Yeah, we were just testing to see if you could deliver on that."

Brick and Blossom just growled. Suddenly Butch called out to them and said, "Hey, while you guys were messing around, Buttercup and I found the next clue"

The others looked over to where the greens were floating when Brick and Blossom turned back to Boomer and Bubbles and Brick said, "We will finish this later you two." Blossom just sternly nods for confirmation as they both get out of the trunk and float over to Buttercup and Butch. Bubbles and Boomer don't go over right away due to the fact that they are having trouble getting out of the long johns.

When Brick and Blossom reach Butch and Buttercup, Blossom notices that the diamond is different than the others they have found so far, this time it's a diamond necklace with a gold chain. "Wow, this is gorgeous."

"Well, it's definitely bigger than the others we've found so far, that's for sure." Said Brick.

"Hey Bubbles, come here and look at this diamond." Blossom says as she turns around but is met with a floating overcoat with no head. "AHHHH!" Blossom shrieks and clings to Brick out of fright but immediately gets an angry look on her face and let's go of Brick and says, "Bubbles, Boomer, knock it off!"

Brick gets mad too and says, "Yeah you two, we're not amused!"

Just as both Blossom and Brick were about to rip the overcoat apart, Boomer called out to them, "Uhh, guys..."

Then Bubbles finished, "We're over here."

Blossom blinked and said, "Huh?"

Brick looked over near the trunk where the four of them were just at and sure enough saw both Bubbles and Boomer hiding behind the lid of the trunk. "Wait, if you two are...then who is...Uh-oh." Brick says as the color in his face drains away as the floating overcoat raises it arms and skeletal hands come out from the sleeves. Blossom shrieks again and jumps behind Brick and Butch and Buttercup back a few feet away. Then, the floating overcoat begins to laugh evilly.

**whooo, done with chapter 9.**

**I've gotten over my cold for the most part now guys but I'm going back to work tomorrow so I won't be updating back to back anymore.**

**Also, next week, I'll be going to Kansas city for Thanksgiving but I'll post as many chapters as I can before I go but while I'm gone, I won't be posting and I doubt I'll be organizing my thoughts into story material either so that'll be the longest gap between the posting of chapters yet.**

**See ya later.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10 and things are going to get just that bit more interesting, enjoy.**

"_Muh-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha_." The headless, floating overcoat laughs evilly as it reaches for the gold, diamond necklace that Blossom is holding. Blossom is too stunned to move at the moment and offers little to no resistance when the ghost takes it from her. The ghost raises it up to 'look' at it and says, in a deep gravely voice, _"Abigail Harlot's necklace, I haven't seen this since before the Boston Massacre. As for you trespassers_," as the ghost points one of its boney fingers at them, "_leave this place, or you will wish you were never created._" The ghost finishes in an evil tone. Blossom gulps and Brick is still rooted to the ground.

Meanwhile, Butch is a few feet behind Brick and Blossom and is watching as the ghost takes the necklace away from Blossom and then outright threatens them afterward. Ghost or not, he **hates** it when someone else tells him what he can and can't do. The only one he listens to at all is Brick and even then it's only because Brick can beat him in a fight. Butch glances at Buttercup and sees she is having a similar internal debate with herself but hasn't decided what she's going to do yet. He, however, has decided what he's going to do; consequences be damned, he's going to show this ghost that if it wants that necklace, it's going to have to earn it.

"Grrrrr, you know what, screw it, **YOLO!**" Butch cries out in determination. He jumps the ghost and clings onto it from the back, grappling it around the waist.

The ghost, surprised by the sudden attack, cries out, "_Ahhh, let go!"_ The ghost flies around the attic with Butch hanging on with a death grip, refusing to let go. _"Get off me, get off!"_ The ghost cries out again. Back on the ground, the others are watching with wide eyes as Butch rides the ghost around the attic. Brick always knew Butch was crazy but to grab a ghost and ride it around like this was just insane. As they pass by Brick, Blossom, and Buttercup, Butch punches the ghost in the stomach and everyone hears the ghost go, "OOF!" Everyone in the room blinks, why would something that is already dead have the wind knocked out of it when you punch it? Realizing that they can fight this ghost, and that it is obviously nowhere near as dangerous as the skull ghost, everyone starts to come towards it with the intent of bashing it into submission.

However, the ghost 'sees' this and decides it's time to leave. _"Away, I say. AWAY!" _Suddenly, the overcoat just falls to the ground and Butch falls along with it. Butch jumps up ready to tear it apart but realizes that the ghost has actually left. "Huh? What the...where'd he go?" Everyone else blinks in surprise. "Wait, so, it's just an overcoat now?" Bubbles asks. "Yeah, it is." Replies Blossom after she walks up and inspects the coat. Buttercup actually flies over and lands on top of it to see if it really is just a coat now but ends up falling into it and through the floor. "Buttercup!" Blossom screams. Everyone races up to where Buttercup fell through the floor and discover a trap door.

There is a loud crash at the bottom of some stairs and they hear Buttercup moan in pain, "Owwwww."

"Buttercup, are you ok?" asks Bubbles.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Buttercup replies. She flies back up to the trap door while rubbing her head and says, "Don't try flying when you're blindfolded. Trust me, it hurts." Everyone but Butch chuckles at that. "Yeah we can tell. You're developing quite the bump on your head." Says Brick, grinning.

Boomer then says, "What do you know, a ghost with a trap door."

Butch angrily replies, "Ghost my foot!"

Everyone turns to Butch in surprise and Buttercup asks, "What do you mean by that Butch?"

"That 'ghost' felt pretty solid to me."

Everyone exchanged a glance and Brick asked, "So, what are you saying bro?"

Butch turns to Brick and says, "What I'm saying Brick is that, I don't think we're alone in this house."

Brick blinked. "You think there's somebody else here?"

Butch nods.

"Why though?" Brick asks.

Butch continues, "Who's to say we're the only ones who know about the treasure?"

"But, we found the first clue in the ice box. If someone else had found it first-" Bubbles started.

Butch shakes his head, "That doesn't mean there can't be someone who had heard rumors of a treasure being here. Maybe someone has been here for days but found nothing, then on Halloween night, the Powerpuff girls and the Rowdyruff boys come by, and by some twist of fate, find the first clue in the ice box. So now, all they'd have to do is get their hands on just one of these clues and they have a chance of finding it themselves."

Everyone ponders what Butch has said. Blossom turns to Brick, "Brick, Butch is right."

Brick sighs but nods his head, "For once Pinkie, I have to agree with you, that is a very likely possibility."

"So, the ghosts are fake?" Boomer asks.

"**That** one was." Butch replies, pointing down at the overcoat. "I don't know about the skull ghost or the British soldier but there is at least one other living person in this house with us."

Everyone exchanges glances again at this, then Blossom speaks, "Buttercup, Butch, do you guys still have the clue?" The greens nod and Butch pulls it from his pocket. "Ok, here's what we're going to do; we're going to go back downstairs and continue hunting for the treasure, but we're also going to keep our eyes open for anyone or anything suspicious. We are NOT going to let them scare us out of the house. Agreed?" Everybody narrows their eyes and nods determinedly. Blossom smiles and says, "Alright, let's go."

* * *

><p>Back downstairs, the kids go into the den and turn on a small lamp so they can read the clue. Brick takes the clue from Butch, opens it, and starts reading, "Alright, it says, 'For this next clue, don't look any higher, just think what you're called when you're not the buyer.'"<p>

"Not the buyer?" Bubbles asks.

Brick rubs his chin in thought, "Hmm, if I'm not the buyer, then I'm the guy who sells something right?"

Blossom nods, "Yeah, that's right."

Suddenly, a knocking noise is heard from somewhere in the house. The kids look at each other before Boomer asks, "Where's that knocking sound coming from?" They follow the sound back to the front foyer but when they get there, nothing seems out of place.

"Ok, that was strange. What was making that sound?" Brick asks.

Blossom responds, "I'm not sure," she starts to turn around to face Brick, "but it's go-" Blossom's words die in her throat when she sees the British soldier standing behind Brick with its pistol aimed at the back of his head. Acting on instinct, Blossom grabs Brick's arm and yanks him towards herself as hard as she can, "BRICK, LOOK OUT!" Brick and Blossom hit the ground just as the gun goes off. The others scream at the sound of the gun shot and jump away. When they look back, they see the British soldier holding a smoking pistol and Brick and Blossom lying on the ground a few feet from the soldier looking up in shock. The soldier glares at them with its one good eye, puts its pistol away, draws its sabre, points the blade tip at Brick and Blossom, and then charges at them with the intent to run them through. Just before the soldier can however, Brick fires an eye-laser at the soldier and hits it, making it stumble and veer of course but the ghost's momentum carries it through and the sabre partially cuts through Blossom's left arm. Blossom stifles a scream of pain while Brick grabs her right arm and jumps back with the rest of their siblings.

"Pinkie, where are you cut?" Brick asks while checking her arm.

"Right here." Blossom points at where her arm stings without looking because she doesn't want to see how bad it is herself but Brick doesn't see any blood.

"Pinkie, I don't see any blood. Hell, I don't even see a cut."

"What? But it hurts, I felt it slice through. Are you sure there's nothing?"

"Look for yourself. Do you see any blood?"

Blossom hesitantly checks her arm but, to her amazement, doesn't see any blood or even a cut, despite her pain.

"I don't understand, why does it feel like I'm hurt then?"

"Uhh, we can figure that out later Blossom. Look." Says Buttercup pointing at the ghost, who has gotten back up and is currently advancing toward them all again.

Brick zaps it again with an eye-laser and again it makes the ghost stumble. Brick grins and says, "It can be hurt with energy attacks, blast it!"

Everyone fires at it with their eye-lasers but the ghost dodges right, does a combat roll, and sweeps its sabre from left to right letting out an energy wave pushing all six kids back several feet. The ghost pulls out its pistol again and takes aim at Boomer who is trying to regain his balance after the ghost's energy wave knocked him back. The ghost fires and hits Boomer square in the chest; Boomer has the breathe violently knocked out of him and he doubles over in pain before he falls down.

"BOOMER!" Bubbles shrieks at the top of her lungs as he fell to the ground right in front of her. Brick and Butch see it too and shoot a look of pure rage at the soldier before blasting it with two energy balls each, one from each hand, and knocking it through a wall and into another room. After making sure the ghost wasn't going to come back through the wall, they both rushed to their brother's side. "Dude, are you ok?" Asked Butch. "Boomer, say something man. Let us know you're alive." Said Brick.

The girls were slightly caught off guard by this sudden show of compassion; they didn't think the boys were actually capable of expressing it. After a moment of torturous silence, Boomer spoke, "I'm...ok. I just...hurt." He said breathlessly as he slowly pushed himself into a kneeling position while clutching his chest. Blossom looked at Boomer's chest to assess the extent of the injury but, just like her arm, there didn't seem to be any blood. "He's not bleeding. There doesn't even seem to be any damage to his costume."

Brick and Butch look at Blossom for a moment before looking back at Boomer and seeing she's right; there isn't any sign of blood or damage. Brick turns back to Blossom, "What the hell is going on Pinkie?!" Brick asked. "First, you say you felt the blade of the sabre slice through your arm but there is no sign of damage and now we all saw Boomer get shot but he isn't injured either. I don't get it."

Boomer is shaking his head, "But Brick, I felt the bullet go through me, there has to be some kind of damage done to me." Boomer staggers a bit when he finally stands up but Bubbles supports him so that he doesn't fall over again.

Brick shakes his head, "Boomer, there's no blood, no injury, hell, there's not even a hole in your costume."

Boomer feels his chest. "But, how? I felt it pass through me."

Blossom is looking over her own arm searching for anything that even remotely looks like a cut when she realizes something. "Hey hold on, I think I know why we're feeling pain."

Everyone turns to Blossom and waits as she puts her explanation into words, "Under normal circumstances, neither the sabre nor the pistol would've been able to hurt us in any way. But since the soldier is a ghost, and is technically a form of energy, and since energy is one of the few things that is capable of causing us actual harm, that has to be why Boomer and I are feeling pain."

"But, a sword and a bullet aren't made of energy Pinkie. They're a physical force and we can withstand physical forces easily." Brick argued.

Blossom nods patiently and says, "Yes, I know Brick, but the soldier must have had his weapons on him when he died, so the weapons are ghostly as well thus making them energy."

Everyone stares at Blossom in shock. Boomer feels his chest once more before asking the obvious question, "But, we've all been hit by energy before, both from each other when we've fought and from either monsters or from some sort of gadget or weapon but the energy never went through us or hurt us like this. I mean, it really felt like my lungs exploded."

Blossom nods, "Yeah, and it felt like my arm was nearly lopped off." Blossom thought about it some more and came to an unsettling conclusion. "Maybe," she began in a disturbed tone of voice, "because it's ghostly energy, we are able to feel real human pain. The kind of pain a normal person would feel if they were hurt in that way but without the permanent after effects like, being dead." Everybody shivered. Brick shakes his head, "Pinkie, that doesn't make sense. How is it that just because it's a ghost, it's able to hurt us?"

Blossom sighs, "Brick, the paranormal, and other ghostly occurrences, are very hard things to study. Unlike other fields of scientific research, you can't expect paranormal activity to occur with the same consistent frequency as say, the tides rising and receding or how diet coke and Mentos react to give you a soda geyser. Heck, you have a better chance of predicting when a volcano is going to erupt to the minute than predicting paranormal activity to occur on any given night in a place that is supposedly haunted." Blossom rubs her temples to ease a headache that has started, "In other words Brick, the ghosts can hurt us through means that we can't begin to understand yet."

Brick gives a dry laugh but still manages to say with confidence, "Well, at least we're able to fight back with our own energy. The soldier still hasn't come back through the wall to attack us again."

Blossom nods, "Yeah, you're right about that."

Brick smirks at Blossom admitting he's right about something but then his eyes widen suddenly. Blossom sees this and asks what's up. "Brick, what is it?"

"The clue, I think I got it." Brick states with a genuine smile.

Blossom blinks at seeing Brick smile like that but quickly asks what the answer is, "Y-you do? Well what is it?"

The others also listen to what Brick has to say. "We're going to the basement."

Bubbles and Boomer say in unison, "The basement?"

Then Butch asks, "Dude, what makes you think we need to go to the basement?"

Brick turns to Butch and explains, "Remember what the clue said? It said, 'what are you when you're not the buyer?' You're the seller. Get it?"

Butch struggles to connect the dots until Blossom states, "I get it, 'cellar' is another word for basement."

Brick nods, "Right, so we're heading for the basement."

Everyone blinks in confusion at first but it clicks a moment later and a resounding "Ohhhhh" is heard. Brick and Blossom shake their heads, slightly amused before Brick says, "Alright, let's go." Everyone heads for the basement door but Brick grabs Blossom's arm and holds her back for a moment. "Pinkie, hang on a second. I need to ask you something." Blossom turns to look at Brick and asks, "What?" Brick glances over her shoulder to make sure their siblings aren't listening before he continues. "Why did you...you know...save me from getting shot by the ghost?"

Blossom's eyes widen at the question before she looks away while rubbing her arm and replies, "Well, I...it's just...*sigh* nobody deserves to suffer like that." Blossom turns back to Brick and looks him in the eye with a small smile, "Besides, the thing you said about, sometimes it's better to just go with the flow. Well, aside from the dangerous situation we're in having to deal with a couple of ghosts, you were right about it; it is getting interesting."

Brick blinks in surprise at Blossom's admission but smirks a moment later. "Hmm, I've been right quite a bit tonight haven't I Pinkie?"

Blossom gapes at Brick for a moment before rolling her eyes good naturedly and lightly hitting him. "*groan* And there's the ego-maniac I'm used to dealing with." She shakes her head in amusement, "Come on, let's catch up with the others."

Brick chuckles and says, "Heh heh, whatever you say...and thanks for doing that, I guess."

Blossom nods and she and Brick head off to join their siblings, having a new-found respect between them.

**This chapter was a pain to write. Not just because of writers' block but also from forcing myself to sit down and write it at all. I think it's because Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I'm just so excited. Oh well, at least I got another chapter in.**

**I don't know if it's obvious yet or not but I'm trying to write the story in such a way that it shows the girls and the boys slowly start to respect each other as the night, and the danger, goes on. Case-in-point, Blossom and Brick's moment at the end there. I hope I'm doing this correctly and not moving too quickly with it.**

**I'll try to post one more chapter before I head off to Kansas, but I'm not sure if I'll make it. In case I don't, I'll say this now; Happy Thanksgiving.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Ok, I managed to find a way to post over the holiday; an iPad. But, it's also a little awkward so forgive me if it isn't the best so far. If you guys find the chapter too choppy or whatever, let me know in your reviews and I'll rewrite it when I get back home and type it on my PC.**

**Alright, chapter 11.**

Blossom and Brick fly up behind their siblings just as they're opening the door to the cellar. The kids float down the stairs and discover some old supplies from the Revolutionary War.

"Oh my...look at this." Says Blossom. "We've found the supplies mentioned in that deed we found in the study."

Brick mentions, "I thought there'd be more than this though."

Looking around, the kids find some old cannons, cannon balls, powder charges, dried food rations, sabers and muskets.

"Dude, this is awesome!" Says Butch as he looks into the barrel of one of the cannons.

Buttercup notices this and says, "Butch, I know we're impervious to physical weaponry but, it's still not a good idea to look down a gun barrel like that."

Butch gives Buttercup a look that says 'really' before replying, "We'll, if we're impervious to it, then why are you bothering to try and tell me it's dangerous?"

Buttercup rolls her eyes and says, "It's still a bad idea Butch."

Blossom nods her head, "She's right Butch. What if it were something that was designed to look like an ordinary cannon but could discharge an energy that is lethal to us? Mojo has built things that don't look particularly dangerous but they are in the long run."

Brick then sighs as he says, "As much as I hate to say this Butch, they do have a point." Butch gives Brick a 'what the hell' look before Brick clarifies, "I know we've done some dangerous stuff like that before, sticking our heads in places they shouldn't be in and all, but with everything that has happened tonight, primarily, finding out the skull ghost can burn us," Brick glances at Buttercup and Bubbles when he says this, "and the British soldier can make us feel significant pain," this time, glancing at Blossom and Boomer, "it's better not to mess around with anything that could be dangerous in the house for now."

Butch frowns at what Brick said but nods his head in agreement regardless. Blossom then clears her throat, "Ok, we know we're in the right place, so now we need to just split up and search the room." Everybody nods and they spread out to search the cellar. While searching the room, Boomer and Bubbles find several sabers that look exactly like the one the British soldier has, Brick and Blossom find some old British uniforms in their part of the room, and Butch and Buttercup find several old locked chests.

"What do you think is in these chests?" Asks Buttercup.

Butch shrugs his shoulders, "I don't know, they seem to be locked."

Buttercup looks at Butch with a shocked expression. Butch notices and asks, "What?"

"They're locked? We have super strength as we'll as x-ray vision; we could rip the chests open or just look into them respectively you know."

Butch tried but failed to fight off the blush rising in his cheeks. "Yeah, I...I knew that." He said trying to save some face. "I was just checking to see if you were still on your toes."

Buttercup scoffs while rolling her eyes and says, "Uh-huh, sure you were."

Butch glares at Buttercup but stops when he notices a door at the back of the room.

"Hey, what's that?" Butch asks pointing at the door.

He floats over and opens the door. As soon as he does a smokey smell hits his nose and he says, "Hmmm, something smells good. Oh boy, look at that!"

The others hear the excitement in Butch's voice and come running. "What did you find bro?" Brick asked.

"Did you find the next clue and jewel?" Asked Blossom.

"We'll, not quite, but in my opinion, it's something just as good." Replied Butch.

The others look at each other slightly confused before going in and see what Butch was talking about.

"Wow! Look at all the cured smoked ham!" Exclaimed Buttercup.

To which Brick replied, "Yeah, and look at the ham eating the hams. Ha ha! Oh boy, I'm starved, let's grab a quick bite to eat before we continue."

Blossom looked a little hesitant but her growling stomach wouldn't let her second guess so she said, "Oh, why not, it's been quite a night so far. Besides, we have to keep up our energy for figuring out the clues and for fighting the ghosts."

Everyone lets out a small cheer, grabs one ham each and digs in. After a couple minutes, Butch grabs his **third** ham when Blossom speaks up, "Butch, how can you eat that much? I mean Buttercup can eat as much as me and Bubbles combined but you're eating easily twice as much as that." Butch just grins as a response. Then Brick explains, "You see Pinkie, Butch has this super-charged metabolism, that I think has something to do with his crazy, hyper, personality as well, that just allows him to eat as much as he wants, not to mention whatever he wants."

Buttercup then supplies hesitantly, "Anything? Like say, calamari?"

Everybody shivers at the mention of raw squid while Butch just grins even more. "All of you guys are pansies."

Everyone gives him a flat stare while Buttercup just says, "Oh, shut up."

Butch smirks and goes to bite his third ham when something happened that no one expected to happen; the ham Butch was holding suddenly opened up from the side and a jewel encrusted tiara and the next clue fell out.

Everyone gasped. "Whoa, what the...since when...how...oeeewwwww-kay, that was a surprise." Said Butch.

Brick rolls his eyes as he picks up the clue and says, "No kidding whacko."

"Ok, so it's the most unique hiding spot any of us have ever seen, but let's gloss over that for now." Blossom says to the group before focusing on Brick. "Ok Brick, what are we faced with next?"

Brick opens the clue but just before he starts reading however, Brick notices one of the cannons from the other room is now sitting in the doorway and pointing right at them; but what's worse is the cannon has a lit fuse.

Brick's eyes widen in surprise and he shouts as he drops to the ground, "CANNON! HIT THE FLOOR!"

Bubbles and Boomer don't hesitate one moment and drop to the ground in a heartbeat, Blossom spins around to see the cannon before she drops as well, Buttercup however turns and just stares in surprise at the muzzle of the cannon until something violently yanks her to the floor just as the cannon goes off.

*BANG!*

As the smoke clears, everyone is lying prone on the floor covering their heads. Brick is the first to look up from the floor and asks the obvious question, "WHAT, THE LITERAL, HELL?! NOW CANNONS ARE TRYING TO KILL US?!"

Blossom looks up next and asks a more important question, in her opinion anyway, "Is everyone alright?"

"Yeah." Replies Bubbles.

"Define 'ok' for me Blossom." Replies Boomer.

"Not hurt in any way."

"Oh, ok, then I'm fine."

"Buttercup, are you alright?" Blossom asks.

Buttercup coughs before saying, "I'm fine, but I think something is on top of me."

Buttercup tried to stand up but there was something holding her down.

"Uh, yeah. That would be me Buttercup." Came Butch's voice.

"Huh?" Buttercup turned to see Butch lying next to her with one of his arms covering her head.

Buttercup blinked and looked at Butch in shock, "Wait, you pulled me to the ground?"

Butch's eyes widen slightly and he quickly looks at something else and says, "Well, umm, you didn't exactly let gravity do the work for you. You were just sitting there staring at the thing."

Now it was Buttercup's turn to look at something else as she said, "Yeah, I guess I just froze." Buttercup catches Blossom's eye and Blossom motions with her head to say thank you to Butch. Buttercup gives her sister a look that says 'seriously' and Blossom nods. Buttercup sighs and says, "Butch," Butch turns and looks at Buttercup, "thanks for that." She finishes with a somewhat tough tone. Butch blinks in surprise before replying, "Yeah, don't mention it." Again in the same tone as Buttercup, trying to maintain some sense of toughness.

Blossom just smiles at that little display while Brick just shakes his head. Blossom sees this and gives Brick a questioning look. Brick quietly explains, "This is starting to enter some uncomfortable territory with us being friendly toward each other and all."

Blossom blinks and looks down in thought. "Yeah, it is a little weird isn't it?"

Before Brick can respond however, Boomer speaks up. "Hey guys, cannons only fire one cannon ball at a time right?"

Brick sighs in annoyance before saying, "Yes Boomer, that's right."

"Then, why does it look like a shotgun blast on the wall behind us?" Boomer asks.

Brick blinks and turns around, Boomer was right, it looked like a massive shotgun had just gone off, not a cannon.

Blossom then gasped, "Grape-shot?"

Brick turned to Blossom, "What?"

"It was grape-shot that was fired from that cannon." Blossom said as she held up a couple of small, iron balls.

Brick blinked in surprise, "Wait, cannons can fire more than just a single large, iron ball?"

Blossom nods, "Well, technically Brick, cannons can fire anything that fits down the barrel but grape-shot was a purpose built ammo substitute for the single round ball. The round shot was for distance and accuracy, while the grape-shot was for close range and taking out large groups of enemy infantry that got close enough to the siege line."

Brick just shakes his head in amazement. He had always thought that cannons could only fire the single, round ball.

Buttercup and Butch stand up with angry looks and Buttercup says, "Someone is trying really hard to scare us out of the house aren't they?"

"Yeah, but they're not going to." Says Butch and then says louder, "You hear that you coward?! We're not leaving!"

Blossom calms them down, "Shhhh, easy you two. We're not going to let them scare us out of the house, you're right about that, but we don't have to let them know that." Brick nods in agreement behind Blossom. Boomer then walks up behind him.

"Hey Brick, here's the clue you dropped." Said Boomer.

Brick turns to Boomer, "Huh?" He looks down and sees the clue in Boomer's hand. "Oh, thanks bro." Brick opens the the clue and says, "Ok, let's try this again." Brick clears his throat then reads, "'The next clue you seek is large and flat, it's the kind of stone you wear as a hat.'"

This time, everyone looks confused. "A stone hat? That's ridiculous." Says Boomer.

"Yeah, you're right Boomer, it is pretty ridiculous. Wouldn't I look cute with a big stone on my head?" Asks Bubbles laughing.

Boomer replies, "I don't know about cute but it would definitely look uncomfortable."

Both blues laugh at that.

Blossom chuckles at the joke but then her face pales. "Oh no."

Everyone turns to Blossom and Brick asks, "What's wrong?"

"I just figured out the clue." Says Blossom.

"Really? Then, why'd you say 'oh no'?" Replied Brick.

"Because of where we have to go. 'A stone you wear as a hat.' A head stone, as in graves."

Everyones faces paled, "You mean...?" Brick asks.

Blossom nods gravely, "Yep. We have to go back out into the cemetery."


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey readers, I'm home and ready to get back into it. Let's get started.**

**Chapter 12.**

* * *

><p>Everyone was a little apprehensive about going back out into the cemetery. After all, the cemetery is where they first met the British soldier.<p>

Brick asked, "Are you sure that's where we need to go?"

Blossom had an worried look on her face and said, "Yes. Unfortunately."

Everyone else groaned in dismay. "Oh great. Let me guess, as soon as we set foot out there, within 20 seconds of entering the graveyard, the soldier will take a pot-shot at us, right?" Buttercup said sarcastically.

"Buttercup, that's not helping." Replied Blossom smartly. Buttercup narrowed her eyes at Blossom but didn't say anything otherwise.

Blossom then glanced around at the others; Bubbles and Boomer were actually shaking, Butch was chuckling, albeit nervously, to himself, and Brick's face was pale. She almost chuckled at the sight of Brick being afraid of something if it weren't for the fact that she knew her own face couldn't have been too far off from his.

Blossom sighed and said, "You guys want to head out there or should we stop and go home?"

Everyone turned toward her surprised and Butch said, "What? No way, we're not stopping. We can't let this creep, ghost, whatever it is, scare us out of the house."

"Yeah Blossom, we've come this far haven't we?" Replied Bubbles.

"Damn straight," said Brick, "ghosts or not, we are staying."

Blossom blinks but nods a moment later, "Ok, I'm just checking since everyone looks apprehensive right now."

Brick nods in understanding and says, "I know, but the only reason we are apprehensive is because both the skull ghost and the British soldier have this annoying habit of just showing up out of nowhere and attacking when we least expect it. If they didn't surprise us every friggin' time, it wouldn't be as bad."

Blossom nods. "Hmm, good point. So, graveyard then?"

The others look at each other for a moment before looking back and saying together, "graveyard."

* * *

><p>Back outside, the fog was still present but it had thinned out significantly so now they could see several yards in all directions, instead of the measly few feet they had when they met the British soldier, so if either he or the skull ghost come at them this time, they had a better chance of seeing them before they were attacked, at least they hoped so.<p>

Even so, that didn't do much to ease the tension in the air at the moment. They were still in the graveyard amongst the tombstones.

As they were floating through the graveyard, Bubbles heard a small rustling sound. When she turned around, she saw one of the gravestones move.

"Eep!"

The others turn to look at Bubbles and Blossom asks, "What's wrong Bubbles?"

"I saw that gravestone move."

Everyone flinched. "Please tell us you're joking." Said Boomer.

Bubbles shook her head. Buttercup then asked, "Well, which one was it?"

Bubbles pointed at a small gravestone on the ground and said, "It was that one."

Everyone looked at the stone in question but it looked pretty solid. "That stone looks pretty still to me." Said Brick. "Come on, let's keep going."

They continue on but Bubbles sees the stone move a second time and says, "It moved again, it moved again!"

Blossom turned to Bubbles and tried to assure her that everything was alright. "Bubbles, I swear to you, gravestones do NOT move. Listen sweetie, it's dark out, there is still some fog around, it can be easy for your eyes to play tricks on you."

Bubbles still looked stricken, "But..."

Blossom shook her head, "But nothing Bubbles. It's fine. I promise."

Bubbles still looked like she wanted to argue but since she was the only one who saw something move, the others won't believe her until they see something move as well. So she was forced to concede defeat for the moment.

Then Brick spoke up, "Guys, as much as I'm going to hate suggesting this, the cemetery is too large to search as a group. We're going to have to split up to cover more ground."

Everyone looked at Brick like he just grew a second head. Brick sighed, "I know, it sounds like a terrible idea but the less time we spend in the cemetery, the less of a chance we run of the soldier finding us."

Everyone glanced at each other before sighing, Brick was right. They split up again in their usual pairs and set off; the greens went back to search the part of the graveyard that was closest to the house, the Reds went deeper into the graveyard, and the blues stayed to search the area they were currently in.

Boomer nudged Bubbles, "Bubbles, be honest, did you really see that gravestone move?"

Bubbles nodded, "I swear Boomer. Despite what Blossom says, I know I saw it move."

Boomer gulped and glanced at the stone in question. The stone did look pretty solid like Brick said but he knew Bubbles wasn't a liar either. Boomer sighed, "Ok, how 'bout this, let's search over here so we don't have to worry about it, sound good to you?"

Bubbles smiled brightly and nodded, "Thanks Boomer."

Boomer blinked, he had never seen Bubbles smile at him like that before. And for whatever reason, it actually made him feel good, so he gave a small, half-smile back and said, "Yeah, don't mention it."

They floated away from the gravestone but when they got out of sight of it, the stone moved a third time, only this time, it opened completely and the skull ghost crawled out and followed after the blues.

As Bubbles and Boomer passed a large tombstone with the name Smith on it, the tombstone rose off of the ground and started to follow them. Bubbles had a feeling they were being followed so she turned around and when she saw the tombstone following them, she screamed. "Ahhhhhhh!" The stone then sat back down on the ground. Boomer turned, "What's wrong Bubbles, did you see another stone move?"

Bubbles whimpered and turned to Boomer and said, "Yes."

Just then, the tombstone fell down and standing there behind it was the skull ghost.

"Yikes!" Shrieked Bubbles.

"Oh geez!" Said Boomer. Both blues ran away. As they are running, they see a large hole in the ground and duck into it. They then peek up and out of it to see if they lost the ghost.

"Do you see him?" Asked Bubbles.

"Nope, it looks like we lost him." Replied Boomer. Just then however, they both heard the sound of a shovel digging into fresh dirt. "What's that?" Asked Bubbles. Both blues then felt dirt hit them in the back. They turn around and see the ghost, with shovel in hand, trying to bury them alive. Bubbles and Boomer scream and fly out of the hole as fast as they can.

Buttercup and Butch, having heard their siblings screams, come flying up from the house and see their blue streaks fly deeper into the graveyard. Buttercup turned to Butch and asked, "What got into them?"

Butch shook his head and replied, "Don't know but come on, we need to catch up to them."

As Bubbles and Boomer are flying, they pass by Blossom and Brick who are calling for everyone to regroup. "Hey you guys, I think Brick and I found something." Blossom calls out. Suddenly, two blues streaks fly past them at high speed and make both Brick and Blossom spin in place. "Ahhhhh!" Blossom yelled. "Whoa!" Said Brick placing a hand on his head. Then Butch and Buttercup fly up.

"Hey, you two alright?" Asked Buttercup.

Brick shakes his head to rid himself of the dizziness and says, "Yeah, I think so."

"What got into them?" Asked Blossom.

Buttercup shrugged her shoulders and said, "I asked myself the same question. Butch and I came flying back up here when we heard them yelling about something."

Blossom and Brick looked at each other then Blossom said, "Well, come on, let's go find them and see if they're ok."

The greens and reds fly off in the direction they saw the blues race off in and look around. As they stop near a tall, thin tombstone, they hear it rattling. Butch then looks up and sees both the blues hiding on top of it. "Hey you two, what are you doing up there?" The others then look up as well. Boomer and Bubbles looked like they just saw a ghost and given the night they've had so far, that is a distinct possibility.

Boomer speaks first, "Uh, well, the view is lovely up here. Heh heh."

Bubbles then explains what happened, "We saw the skull ghost just now. He snuck up behind us hiding behind a fake tombstone and we ran and hid in a hole in the ground. Just as we thought we lost him, we hear the sound of a shovel digging into dirt and we felt dirt hit us in the back so we turned around and there he was trying to bury us alive."

Everyone was a little wide eyed. Then Butch said with nervous sarcasm, "Oh, he was trying to bury you alive? Yeah, that's not creepy at all."

Brick elbowed Butch as a way of saying 'knock it off' then Blossom spoke up, "Ok, so he's out here right now but I think Brick and I found something." Blossom then looked up at Bubbles and Boomer, "Come on down you two." Bubbles and Boomer looked hesitant but came down anyway and they all followed Brick and Blossom.

* * *

><p>After following them for a little while, they come up to one particular gravesite. "Hey, how's that for a headstone?" Said Butch. The headstone in question literally had a stone carving of someone's head on the top. "Yeah, that's what I said too bro." Said Brick, then his face lit up, "Hey Pinkie, remember what the clue said about a stone hat?" Blossom turned to Brick and nodded. "I'll bet the next clue is underneath it." Brick finished while pointing at the stone hat on top of the headstone. Blossom then said enthusiastically, "I'll bet your right Brick. Here, I'll check it." Unbeknownst to the kids however, something was sneaking up behind the headstone ready to grab the clue first.<p>

Blossom flies up and lifts the stone hat off the headstone's head and finds the next clue as well as a jeweled brooch. Her eyes widen, "Bingo, you were right Brick." Blossom says looking down at him, "I'll just grab thes-" but suddenly, a gloved hand grabs the clue and brooch which startles Blossom. "YIKES!" She shrieks and then falls down on top of everyone else. As they are all trying to get up, a ghostly laugh pierces through the night. They turn and see the British soldier standing on the other side of the headstone with clue and brooch in hand. Everyone screams and takes off. The soldier looks at the clue and brooch and chuckles to himself when suddenly, Butch flies back up to him and yanks them out of his grasp, "Gimme that!" before flying off again. The soldier then draws his sword and says, "Come back here!"

Butch blinks and turns to look back at the soldier, 'that's the first time he's said anything,' Butch thought. Putting it out of his mind for now, he turns back to his front and calls out to the others, "Hey guys, I got the stuff!" Butch waits for a response but no one answers. He calls out again, "Hey, where are you guys?" Suddenly, he's yanked back and into a small crypt by Brick. "In here dude." Everyone is looking out to make sure the ghost is gone, when it looks like the coast is clear, Brick turns back to Butch and says, "Good work dude." "Yeah, not bad." Said Buttercup. Butch looks at everyone and just rubs his head, "Ahh, it was nothing. At least we ditched him."

**"Think again, you fools!"**

Everyone jumped and screamed. They spun around to see the skull ghost floating just behind them inside the crypt. The ghost charged up its fire powers and brought both its fists up and over its head to slam them all into the ground with the double-deuce. Thinking fast, Butch brought up his force field to protect everyone just as the ghost brought its fists down. The blast hit the force field and saved everyone from getting hurt but it was still strong enough to push them all through the ground and into a hidden pit underneath the crypt.

* * *

><p><strong>And, I'm going to stop it there. Yes, yes, you may all now send me your hate mail. I'll have the next chapter posted before the end of this week.<strong>


	13. Chapter 13

**Hope you guys don't hate me too much for ending on a cliff hanger last chapter.**

**Chapter 13**

The kids were slammed into the ground so hard, they were actually pushed through it and into a hidden pit beneath the crypt. After the dust settled and everyone's bearings returned, Butch said, while rubbing his head, "Oh man that hurt. Even with the force field that hurt."

"Well, either way Butch, that was pretty quick thinking. You just saved us from getting severely hurt." Said Blossom.

But before Butch could thank Blossom for the compliment, the ghost spoke up, **"Now, you interfering brats, throw up that jeweled brooch and** **that**** scroll or I'll-" **

Just then, a gunshot rang out and the skull ghost recoiled. Everyone blinked in shock.

"What the...?" Said Brick.

A second shot was heard and the ghost recoiled again and groaned in pain. **"Arrrgggg!"**

The skull ghost then took flight and left the area clutching its abdomen. Just as the kids were wondering who had helped them, the British soldier walked by the top of the hole. Fortunately, it didn't look down into the hole because it was too focused on the retreating skull ghost. As the soldier walked away, the kids heard two more gunshots nearby and then a third one 10 seconds later that was further away indicating that both of them had left the area.

Everyone looked at each other in disbelief until Bubbles asked, "Why did the soldier just attack the skull ghost?"

Blossom shook her head, "I don't know Bubbles. I thought since they were both trying to scare us away from the house that they were on the same team."

Then Butch remembered the soldier had actually spoken to him earlier, "Hey guys, when I took the clue and brooch back from the soldier, it actually spoke to me."

The others kinda looked at him funny and Brick said, "Ok, so?"

"Well, it hasn't spoken at all the entire night until then. I just thought it was weird. Of all the times it could've said something to us, it was when I took the clue and brooch back that it finally did speak." Explained Butch.

The others thought back to the rest of the night's events and realized that Butch was right, the soldier had never spoken once tonight.

"Well, what did it say to you?" Asked Buttercup.

Butch shrugged, "It just said, 'come back here.'"

Everyone exchanged glances. Then Brick went on, "It still doesn't explain why they're suddenly attacking each other though." Just as Brick said this, they heard an explosion from the skull ghost's fire powers in the distance.

*KABOOM!*

Everybody flinched and instinctively ducked down at the sound. Brick glanced up before he continued, "I mean, the soldier did take the jewel and clue right out from under pinkie's nose."

Blossom meanwhile was thinking really hard on what had just happened, something about the last couple of minutes just didn't make sense and it was irritating her to no end due to the fact that she couldn't figure out what it was. "I don't know exactly what's going on at this particular moment but something is not adding up. I will say however that I think Butch hit the nail on the head when he said we're not alone in the house. There is no reason a ghost would have any interest, whatsoever, in monetary possession of any kind; they're dead after all. However, a living person would."

Brick turned to Blossom, "So, you think the soldier and the skull ghost are two people who just want this treasure?"

Blossom shook her head, "Like Butch said earlier, I don't know, but it is very likely that someone else knew about the treasure before we did and has been here for days, perhaps weeks, searching for it. We've got to keep our eyes open from this point forward."

Everyone nodded at what Blossom said. Suddenly, another gunshot and explosion is heard in the distance. Blossom then said to the group, "Ok, while those two are fighting, let's get out of here and read the clue to find out where to go next."

They all floated up to the opening in the ground and poked their heads out.

"Anyone see anything?" Brick asked. Five 'noes' came back to him as an answer. "Alright, let's get back to the house." The kids flew out of the hole and went back to the house noticing some white flames in the distance where the soldier and the skull ghost were fighting.

* * *

><p>After they got back inside the house, Butch took out the clue and read it, "Alright, it says, 'You're nearing the end of this obstacle course, so if you go buggy, you won't need a horse.'"<p>

"Buggy?" Said Boomer.

"Horse?" Said Brick.

Buttercup then snapped her fingers, "Horse and buggy. Where would you find a horse and buggy?"

The others thought for a moment before Bubbles said, "In a stable, and there's a stable behind the house."

"Alright Bubbles." Praised Blossom. Bubbles blushed and rubbed her head at the praise. "Come on guys, let's head out back." Said Blossom.

"Are you sure we should head back outside right now? The soldier and the skull ghost are still trading blows out there." Said Brick as he motioned with his head out the window where a flash of white light could be seen out in the woods.

Blossom nodded, "Yes Brick. Those two are still focused on each other, which means they won't be focused on us."

Brick had to nod in agreement at that and with that, they went back outside but they stayed low to the ground after leaving the house so as not to attract the attention of either of the two ghosts.

* * *

><p>After they passed a nearby well, they reached the stable. They could still hear gunshots and fire blasts in the distance indicating both ghosts were still preoccupied with each other. They opened the stable door and began looking around. While Bubbles and Boomer checked the hay loft, the others checked the front and back of the ground level of the stable. After several minutes of looking however, they still hadn't found anything.<p>

"Where is it?" Asked Brick.

"Are we sure we're looking in the right place?" Asked Butch.

"We have to be, the stable was the only thing that made sense." Replied Blossom.

"Well then, where's the clue?" Asked Buttercup.

Just then, another fire blast was heard but it sounded much closer this time. Everyone looked at each other with a nervous expression. "The fight is coming back this way." Said Boomer.

"Ok guys, think. What else could the clue have meant?" Said Blossom.

Everybody thought hard but they knew they were in the right place; there was nothing else that would make sense as the answer to the riddle so the next clue had to be in the stable. Then Bubbles asked, "Did you guys look in the buggy itself?"

Blossom, Brick, Butch, and Buttercup looked up at Bubbles then back at one another.

"Buttercup, did you and Butch check the buggy?" Asked Blossom.

"No, did you and Brick?" Replied Buttercup.

Blossom face-palmed and said, "No. But I'll check right now."

Blossom dove into the buggy and began throwing the hay in it aside. After a couple of moments, Blossom cried out, "Ah-ha! There you are!" She then came back out holding the next clue and, instead of a diamond this time, she had a ruby.

"Whoa, is that a ruby?" Asked Brick.

Blossom nodded, "Yep, it sure is."

"Nice." Said Buttercup

"Alright, hurry up and read the next clue. We need to take advantage of those two fighting while we can." Said Brick.

Blossom nodded and opened the clue. "Ok, it says, 'To get to the bottom of things is the trick, just think how you feel when you're not sick.'"

"'Think how you feel when you're not sick?'" Asked Brick.

Blossom just shrugged her shoulders and nodded as she showed Brick the clue.

Then Boomer spoke up, "If you're not sick, that means you would feel, well, right?"

Everybody turned toward Boomer and Blossom said, "Yeah, that's right."

Then Butch said, "Hey, didn't we pass a well on our way here?"

Everyone froze at that and Brick said as his face lit up, "Hey yeah, we did. Butch, you're a freakin' genius!"

Butch smirked at that and they all quickly flew off to the well they passed earlier. When they got there, they immediately concluded that the clue would most likely be at the bottom of the dry well and Butch and Buttercup volunteered to go down and search for it.

"Wow, it's dark down here." Said Butch.

"I'm working on that, hold on." Replied Buttercup.

Butch heard Buttercup rubbing her hands together faster and faster until a fireball was sitting in her right hand.

"Whoa, that's useful." Said Butch.

Buttercup smirked and said, "You have no idea."

Blossom then suddenly called down to them, "You guys see anything?"

The greens looked up and said in unison, "Not yet."

"Well hurry, I don't know how much longer we can be out in the open like this before the ghosts come back." Replied Blossom.

Just after Blossom says this, Boomer says, "Guys, listen."

Brick, Blossom, and Bubbles freeze at Boomer's words and listen closely. A few moments pass but they don't hear anything.

Eventually, Blossom said, "Boomer, I don't hear anything."

Boomer looked at Blossom gravely and replied, "I know. What happened to the fighting? It got dead quiet."

The others eyes widened in realization, it was dead quiet; no gunshots, no fire blasts, just silence. The only thing that could be heard that wasn't their own breathing, was the wind blowing gently through the trees.

Bubbles whimpered and nudged Blossom, "Why did they stop fighting? Did one of them win?"

Blossom shrugged and said, "I don't know."

Brick gave a dry chuckle and said with a slight tremor in his voice, "I n-never knew silence could be s-so terrifying. Where are they?"

Blossom turned to Brick with a white face and just shrugged her shoulders.

*FWOOOM*

Suddenly, a torrent of fire torched the well's roof just over their heads. Everybody screamed in horror and turned to see the skull ghost several yards away floating near the tree line.

"Well, I guess we know who won now." Said a terrified Boomer.

"Everyone, into the well!" Shouted Blossom.

The others didn't hesitate a moment and dove into the well. Buttercup and Butch were startled by their sudden appearance when they reached the bottom.

"Whoa, what the...? What are you guys doing down here?" Asked Buttercup.

"The skull ghost just tried to roast us up there." Bubbles replied.

Butch and Buttercup's eyes went wide. "Oh great. So the soldier lost?" Asked Butch.

"I guess so." Replied Brick.

"Wonderful." Said Buttercup.

"What do we do now? If we go back up there, he'll roast us." Said Boomer.

"If we stay down here, he'll still roast us; it's like shooting fish in a barrel." Replied Blossom.

In the commotion, Bubbles backed into the well's wall and she felt it give a little. Perplexed, she gave it a bit more pressure and she realized that it was a hidden door. Eyes widened in surprise, she turned to the others, "Guys, look at this."

Everyone turned and saw Bubbles pushing against the wall. For a moment, everyone thought she was nuts but they saw it open a moment later. Perfect timing too because the skull ghost was looking down into the well and announced his intentions, **"I have you now you irritating brats. Prepare...to...DIE!"**

The kids dove through the open passageway and slammed it shut on the other side just as the ghost fired a jet of flame down the well to incinerate them. After collecting their breathe, the kids took in their new surroundings and Brick spoke first, "Whoa, look at all the war supplies."

"It looks like a Revolutionary War supply cave." Stated Blossom.

The cave had cannons, cannon balls, powder charges, food rations, horse saddles, pistols, rifles, muskets, sabers, old crates of what looked like the remains of uniforms, boots, bayonets, basically enough supplies to fully outfit a company of troops.

The kids were astounded at the amount of weaponry and supplies they currently saw. "Well, at least we found the rest of the supplies." Said Brick with a trace of humor in his voice.

Blossom looked at Brick funny and asked, "What do you mean?"

"When we went down into the cellar and we found a couple of cannons amongst other things. Not to mention, one of the cannons fired on it own and tried to kill us." Brick replied.

Blossom eyes widened in realization, "Oh yeah."

"Hey guys, there seems to be a way out of here." Said Boomer pointing at a large cave at the other end of the supply room.

"Hey yeah, good eyes Boomer. Wait, what's that next to it?" Asked Butch as he was pointing toward a ledge next to the cave opening.

The others looked at what he was pointing at and they all saw it.

"It's...It's a pearl necklace." Said Blossom.

"And another clue." Said Buttercup. Everybody flew over.

Bubbles picked up the clue and began reading. "Ok, it says, 'At the end of this tunnel are many more pearls but along the way are many more perils.'"

"Perils? What are perils?" Asked Boomer.

"Peril is another word for danger Boomer, so the letter is saying we will find more jewels but we'll encounter more danger along the way." Replied Blossom.

"Oh, like we haven't already tonight Blossom?" Asked Buttercup.

Blossom started to say something but closed her mouth a moment later and instead said, "Good point."

Brick turned to look down the tunnel for a moment before turning back to the group. "Ok, let's get moving before tall, dark, and flaming comes down after us."

The others turn to Brick and nod while Blossom says with a nervous edge to her voice, "Yeah, good idea."

The kids start to float down the long, dark tunnel when Bubbles asks, "What kind of dangers do you think are down here?"

Blossom shakes her head, "I don't know Bubbles, but we need to keep our eyes open for anything that might be dangerous."

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><p><strong>Chapter 13 is done. Just to give you guys a heads up, there are only 3 more riddles left before the climax to the story and I promise you'll be surprised.<strong>


	14. Chapter 14

**Alright, 3 more riddles left until the climax of the story. Unfortunately, this chapter is going to be a bit shorter.**

**Chapter 14 here we go.**

After the kids had been floating down the tunnel for a few minutes, Butch says, "Hey Buttercup, can you do that fireball thing again? It's kinda dark down here."

"Sure." Buttercup rubs her hands together again and within a couple of seconds, they had a light source.

"Whoa." Said Brick.

"Hey, that's useful." Said Boomer.

Buttercup smirks and says, "Like I told Butch earlier, you have no idea."

Brick just nods his head while Boomer says, "Well, at least we can see things now."

As the kids continue down the tunnel for another few minutes, Buttercup says, "Wow, this sure is a long tunnel. I can't see the end of it." Then Boomer sees something thanks to Buttercup's fire.

"Hey, what's that up there?"

The others look at Boomer and see him pointing at something on the ceiling.

"It looks like a hatch." Said Bubbles.

"Hey yeah. Maybe it's a way out." Said Blossom as she floated up and started pushing. The hatch got stuck however and she had to push a bit harder before it finally opened up. She poked her head through and was surprised at what she saw.

"Hey, w-we're back in the cemetery." Blossom said with a nervous edge to her voice. _Why do we always end up in the cemetery_, she thought to herself.

Blossom heard the others suck in a breathe below her.

"Wait, so we're underground in the cemetery? Why haven't we seen any coffins or skeletons down here?" Asked Butch.

Bubbles' face drained of all color and started whimpering while Buttercup elbowed Butch in the stomach, "Butch!" She hissed.

Butch, currently doubled over in pain from the blow, actually had the decency to look sheepish and said, "Sorry, my bad."

Boomer, after giving Butch a look that said, 'really?', then asked Blossom the obvious question, "Do you see any ghosts Blossom?"

Blossom looked around for a moment and sighed in relief, "Nah, come on up you guys, there isn't a ghost for two miles."

The others came up and looked around and were relieved that they were alone. There was just one problem; they weren't. Standing just behind them was the British soldier and they hadn't noticed him yet. That is until, the hatch that Blossom pushed open fell over and onto its feet.

"OUCH!" Yelped the soldier.

The kids turned. "YIKES! Would you believe two feet!?" Shrieked Blossom. Bubbles and Boomer were holding on to each other, Butch and Buttercup were gaping at the ghost in terror, and Brick had actually pulled Blossom away from the ghost a bit.

"That did it, now you all are going to pay for your trespassing." Said the soldier in a deathly serious voice as it started reaching for them.

The kids screamed and immediately ducked back down inside the hole.

"Ok, time to go!" Yelled Brick. "This way!" They continued down the tunnel only now with an angry spirit chasing them. The ghost pulled out its pistol and fired but due to the kids flying around, it missed.

Blossom looked back and saw that they were losing the ghost. A smile came to her face and said, "Keep going guys, we can lose him." But the ghost had other ideas.

"You can't escape that easily you pesky brats, I'm springing the booby-traps on you!"

The ghost stopped next to a lever and pulled it down. Suddenly, the cave started to rumble and small bits of the ceiling were coming down too.

"What's happening?!" Shrieked Bubbles.

Brick's eyes widened, "I think he's collapsing the cave. MOVE IT!"

The kids picked up the pace. Blossom thinks back to the clue, more specifically the part about facing the perils. "Guys, this must be what the clue meant about perils, be ready for anything."

Just as she said this, spikes suddenly jutted out from the walls and nearly skewered them. "Holy hell!" Shouted Brick. "Don't stop!"

They continued on and the ground started opening up revealing a pit with spikes at the bottom; of course this meant nothing to them since they could fly. The next trap did succeed in separating the group slightly but then who wouldn't be when pendulum axes come swinging from the ceiling. After that, some small, sharp stones began shooting out from the walls and scoring hits here and there but the only damage done was to their costumes; a rip here, a scuf there. After they reached what looked like a dead end, they were able to catch their breathe.

"He he heh, that was...nothing." Said Brick between pants.

"Oh really? Then why are you...out of breathe?" Asked Blossom breathlessly.

Brick smirked, "Oh? Look who's talking Pinkie."

"Uhh, guys, can we save this for later? In case you haven't noticed, we're sort of trapped here." Said Butch.

Suddenly, Boomer called out to the ghost, "Hey, is that all the traps you got? That was nothing you Halloween reject!" Both Boomer and Bubbles were further away from the wall as the others at the moment with Bubbles being the furthest. Before Brick could tell Boomer to knock it off, Bubbles glanced up at the ceiling and a horrified look appeared on her face. "BOOMER, LOOK OUT!" Bubbles dove for Boomer pushing him down and both of them skidded across the ground just as a large slab of rock with spikes sticking out of the bottom fell from the ceiling just where Boomer was floating moments before.

"Holy hell!" Yelled Brick and Butch in unison. Blossom and Buttercup were covering their mouths with their hands at the close call. Boomer looked at the large slab of rock with wide eyes and then looked at Bubbles with gratitude written all over his face, "Whoa, thanks Bubbles I owe you one."

Bubbles gave Boomer a small smile and said, "Don't mention it." Boomer smiled back.

"Uhh guys, that's great and all, and thank you Bubbles for saving our brother but, we're still trapped here!" Said Butch as he pointed to the wall.

Brick sighed, "We'll figure this out guys, calm down. After all, we're out of danger now."

"No we're not, look!" Shrieked Blossom as she grabbed Brick's shoulder to turn him around. When he and the others did, they saw the soldier with a cannon pointing at them and a match in his hand lighting the fuse. "I promise kids, this will only hurt for a split-second." As it said this, it motioned toward its blown apart face.

The kids screamed in terror and slammed against the wall in a desperate attempt to escape. Amazingly, it worked because the wall suddenly revolved around and they found themselves in another room just as the cannon went off. They could feel the impact of multiple projectiles, most likely grape-shot again, hit the wall behind them and then a deep rumbling sound as the cave collapsed, sealing the entrance.

They all collapsed to the floor after a moment and caught their breathe. "Oh man. I can't believe I'm about to say this but I'm beginning to wonder if searching for this treasure is actually worth the risk." Said Brick as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

"Hearing that coming from you really speaks volumes about how dangerous of a situation we're in right now." Said Blossom. Brick lets out a scoff and says, "Oh geez, thanks a lot Pinkie." Then Brick looks around and takes in his surroundings before stating, "Hey, we're back in the basement. How about that. I'll bet that's how the ghosts have been getting in and out of the house."

"Hey guys look, more pearls, just like the last clue said." Said Buttercup.

"And another scroll." Said Blossom. "Come on, let's get upstairs where we can read this before anything else happens."

* * *

><p>Back upstairs, Blossom opens the clue and starts reading. "Ok, it says, 'There's no mystery about the next clue, inside bear cave, the jewel's in plain view.'"<p>

"Bear cave?" Asked Boomer.

"Hey, we passed that on the way to the house. This is going to be easy." Said Buttercup.

"pfffftttt, yeah real easy, provided the bear isn't around." Butch replied in a snarky manner. The others looked at him funny before Buttercup said, "Why should we be worried about a normal bear? We have superpowers. The bear is probably going to be the least dangerous thing we have to deal with tonight."

Butch Blinked at that and said, "Oh yeah, good point."

The others just shook their heads in amusement but Bubbles still looked a bit on edge. "I hope we don't have to deal with the bear though. The last thing I want to do is disturb its sleep."

Blossom remembered that they were talking about whether or not the bear was hibernating yet when they walked past the cave earlier that night.

"Don't worry Bubbles, if we're careful, we can sneak in, find the clue and sneak out before the bear is any the wiser." Said Blossom.

"Yeah, provided the soldier or the skull ghost doesn't show up and try to kill us that is." Brick unhelpfully supplied.

Blossom sighed in slight annoyance, "Yeah, that's a possibility but we'll deal with it if it comes to it."

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><p><strong>Only 2 riddles left now. We're getting closer to the climax. I've got to start thinking how the last couple chapters are going to play out. I mean, I know how I want the story to end but I'm still having a little trouble putting it into words, especially the chapter where the kids have a little chat with the antagonist. Oh well, I will have it figured out before the end of the year.<strong>


	15. Chapter 15

**Ok, because a few people have wondered out loud about it and we're almost through the main bulk of the story, I'll come out with it right now; the reason this story sounds like a scooby-doo movie is because it's based off of a scooby-doo movie. "Scooby-doo meets the Boo Brothers" to be exact. That's where the plot, the treasure hunt, the riddles, the ghosts...sort of, considering I had to change them to actually make them dangerous to the PPG and the RRB, and the setting came from. I'll go into more detail either in the last chapter or I'll post something after the story to explain my thought process for how this story came to be.**

**Ok, explaination over, let's get back to it. Chapter 15.**

* * *

><p>After stepping back outside, the kids glanced around to make sure the soldier and the skull ghost weren't nearby before going out into the open. Convinced the coast was clear, they set off for Bear Cave.<p>

"I sure hope this is the last clue," stated Brick, "cause after the night we've had, I feel like I could sleep all day tomorrow."

Blossom nodded, "Yeah, I know what you mean Brick. It has been a wild night, hasn't it?"

Butch laughed. "HA! 'Wild?' That doesn't even begin to describe the night we've had, more like, insanely crazy."

"For once, I have to completely agree with Butch." Said Buttercup. "We've gone up against criminals, super-villains, and monsters, and yet tonight feels like one of the most, if not _the_ most, intense nights of my life."

"Yeah, not to mention getting the blood pumping." Said Boomer. "I mean, a haunted house, a ghost soldier, a demon skull ghost...thing, cannons going off by themselves, booby traps. It's an adrenaline junkie's paradise!"

Bubbles just shook her head good naturedly at Boomer's comment and said with a little mirth in her voice, "Only you guys could call this place a 'paradise' of any kind. Anyway, personally, I'm more surprised about finding a clue to a treasure hunt in the refrigerator more than anything else tonight."

Blossom nodded, "Yeah, I still can't believe that. I mean, really, what are the odds of something like this happening?"

Before anyone could answer however, they all heard a low groan. They all stopped and listened for it again and sure enough, 10 seconds later, they heard it again.

"What was that?" Asked Buttercup.

Brick turned to look at the group from the corner of his eye and said, "I'm only guessing but I think that might of been the bear."

Everyone nervously glanced around for the large animal but couldn't see it anywhere. After floating a few more feet, they heard the groan again and Blossom said, "Yep, that's the bear alright. He must be right nearby."

Buttercup shrugged, "Well, even if he is, so what? Like I said earlier, we have superpowers, dealing with a bear is probably going to be the least dangerous thing we have to do tonight."

"I know that Buttercup but we shouldn't bother the bear unless we really have to. It isn't going to attack us like the ghosts have been, it's just an animal. If it attacks us at all, it'll be most likely because we're in its territory." Said Blossom.

Brick cleared his throat, *ahem* "Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it because we're here." Brick said as he pointed at the cave in question.

Everyone looked at the cave with slight apprehension since it didn't look this dark and unsettling when they passed by it earlier. However, they still ventured inside, determined to find the next clue. After going inside, they found themselves in a large, open cavern with a deep gorge and a spire in front of them.

"Wow. This place is impressive." Said Blossom.

"Yeah, I guess it is, for something that is made entirely from rock." Responded Brick. "Now, does anyone see the clue? The last one said it was supposed to be easy to spot."

The kids looked around for a moment before Bubbles said, "I see it, up there, on top of the spire." She said while pointing.

The others looked to where Bubbles was pointing and sure enough, there it was. "Hey, good eyes Bubbles." Praised Boomer.

Bubbles blushed slightly and said, "Thanks Boomer."

"I'll get it." Said Butch as he flew up to get it. He picked it up off the top of the spire and said down to the others, "Whoa. Now these are some serious jewels."

The others looked at each other before Buttercup asked, "What do you mean?"

Butch came back down with the clue and jewels in hand and showed them and everyone said the exact same thing, "Wow." In Butch's hand was a pearl necklace that had three fist sized rubies attached to it. It was by far the most extravagant thing they had found tonight.

Blossom took the necklace from Butch and held it up, "This is absolutely gorgeous." She said in a low whisper.

Brick had to nod in agreement as he held one of the rubies in his hand, "Yeah, no kidding. It makes you wonder what the next one will look like doesn't it?"

Everyone glanced at each other after Brick said that with small smiles etched onto their faces.

"Ok, let's read the next clue." Said Boomer pointing at the clue in Butch's hand. Before Butch could open it however, they heard the low groan again, only this time, it was much louder.

Everyone tensed up and quickly looked around for the bear but still couldn't see it. With how loud the groan was, the bear had to be within a few yards of them so why couldn't they see it? After the groan was heard again, Blossom realized something, "Guys, wait. That groan doesn't sound like it came from an animal." The others turned toward Blossom with a questioning look. Then Brick asked, "Well then, what does it sound like to you?" Blossom then floated in the direction they heard the groan come from while replying, "You might think I'm crazy but the groan almost sounds," Blossom rounds a corner and looks down and gasps, "human!" Lying on the ground was a man who was tied up and had a few scrapes and bruises as well as gagged. Blossom began untying the man just as the others came around the corner.

Brick's eyes widen and says, "What the...who's this?"

Blossom shakes her head, "I don't know but help me untie him." Brick and Buttercup kneel down and help Blossom with freeing the man while Bubbles, Boomer, and Butch stay back. Something catches Boomer's eye in the darkness, "Hey, is that a backpack over there?" Butch and Bubbles look to where Boomer is pointing to the right of the tied up man and they see a small backpack sitting against a rock. Bubbles floats over and picks it up to find some water and a little food inside as well as a cell phone. Just then, the three of them hear the man groan, "Owwww."

They turn back and find the man sitting up and rubbing his wrists where they were bound by the rope. "Thank you for helping me. I've been here for the last two days." Upon hearing this, Bubbles takes the water bottle from the backpack and floats over to the man and gives it to him. "Here, you must be thirsty." The man sees the water bottle and takes it while smiling, "Thank you young lady." As he takes a few gulps, Brick asks, "Who are you dude?"

The man looks at Brick with one eye and pulls the bottle away from his lips and says, "My name is Nicholas Harlot."

They all gasp at the man's response. "Nicholas Harlot?" Asked Blossom astonished.

Nicholas nodded, "Yes." Then he saw they were all shocked by his answer. "Is something wrong?"

Blossom shook her head, "No, it's just, you're the one who was left a family fortune."

Nicholas' eyes shot open at that. "How do you know about that?"

"We found a diamond and scroll in the refrigerator that had your name in it. We've been following the clues ever since and we just found this one." Said Bubbles while pointing at the pearl, ruby necklace lying on the ground next to Blossom's feet and the clue that Butch still held in his hand.

Nicholas looks down and picks up the necklace. After looking it over for a few moments, he turns to the kids and asks, "How many have you found?"

Butch responds, "Counting this one, eleven. We haven't read the clue yet though." He says as he holds up said clue.

Nicholas nods. Then Boomer asks, "How'd you get tied up anyway?"

Nicholas turns to Boomer and says, "I came here about two days ago to find my family's fortune. You see, my uncle, Sam Harlot, lived here and he left the family fortune to me when he passed away about a month ago. However, not long after I got here, someone snuck up behind me and knocked me out. The last thing I remember seeing was blonde hair and a pair of black sunglasses before I blacked out."

Butch then growls, "I knew it. Ever since what happened in the attic, I knew there was someone else in the house."

Blossom nods, "Not to mention, the soldier and the skull ghost fought each other in the cemetery earlier as well."

Nicholas then says something that shocks them all, "While I do agree with you that there is someone else here, the is supposedly a real ghost here as well."

The kids look at Nicholas with wide eyes and Buttercup asks, "Really?"

Nicholas nods. "Granted, my uncle has been the only one to see the ghost but he has never lied to me in the past."

Just then, they all hear a loud growl. They turn toward the entrance to the cave and see a large grizzly bear standing on its hind legs with an angry look on its face.

"Well, looks like the bear finally came home." Said Blossom.

"Yeah, but at least this will be easy since it's a normal bear and not a 'ghost' bear or whatever." Said Brick.

"But, I still don't want to hurt it you guys. It's just a bear after all." Protested Bubbles.

"We won't have to. I still have one of these left." Said Buttercup as she pulled out a stink bomb.

The boys' eyes widened and Butch asked, "Whoa, where'd you get that? And for that matter, why do you have it anyway?"

Buttercup smirked and said, "You guys remember Mitch?" The boys nod. "I got them from him. As to why I have it, it's Halloween, aside from trick or treating, it's also a night where you're supposed to have some fun."

The boys nod at this and Butch says, "Too true."

"UGH, please don't encourage her." Mutters Blossom. The boys and Buttercup just grin at Blossom's words and Buttercup prepares to throw the bomb.

"Ok you guys, take a deep breath and hold it. This stuff is strong." Says Buttercup as she throws the bomb right at the bear's feet and within 3 seconds, the bear roars in disgust and immediately turns and runs out of the cave. Since Nicholas is still hurt, Blossom and Bubbles hoist him up while Butch grabs Nicholas' backpack and they all fly out of the cave.

Once outside and a fair distance away from the cave, Blossom and Bubbles set Nicholas down and Bubbles uses the last of the water in the water bottle to heal Nicholas' most serious wounds so that he can stand on his own power. "Thanks for that my dear." Says Nicholas to Bubbles. Bubbles smiled at that.

"So, now that we know for certain there is someone else here, what's next?" Asked Brick.

Blossom thought for a moment before she got an idea. "Nicholas, do you have any way of calling for help?"

"He has a cell phone, Blossom." Replied Bubbles.

Nicholas nodded, "Yes, I do."

Blossom nodded, "Alright, here's the plan, since we have superpowers and can deal with anything this person and/or ghost throws at us, we'll head back to the house and continue searching for your family's fortune. Meanwhile, you see if you can get the police up here and once they are, we can find out whose been causing trouble for all of us and bring them to justice."

Nicholas nodded, "Sounds like a plan to me. I'd offer to help you but my head still hurts from the blow I received amongst other things."

Blossom smiled and said, "Which is why I suggested you go and get the police."

"Alright, you kids be careful though." Said Nicholas as he started to walk away to find a signal for his phone.

"Don't worry about us Nicholas. We've been through worse than this." Said Buttercup.

Once Nicholas was out of sight, everyone turned back toward Butch with an eager look. "What?" Asked Butch.

"Dude, you have the clue, open it." Replied Brick.

Butch's eyes widened a bit and said, "Oh yeah." Butch opens the clue and begins reading. "Ok, it says, 'Go to a place that covers the tide, to find the last clue just pier inside.'"

Everybody gasped at this. The last clue? They were almost done with this little hunt.

"The last clue?! Oh goody, oh goody, oh goody!" Exclaimed Bubbles.

Brick chuckled, "Yeah, it's about time. I was starting to wonder how many more were left."

Blossom nodded determinedly and smiled at everyone, "Alright you guys, this is it. Let's find the last clue, locate the treasure, then wait for the police to arrive to help us find the little sneak who's been pretending to be a ghost."

"Not to mention who has also hurt a few of us." Said Brick while looking pointedly at Blossom, Bubbles, Buttercup and Boomer.

Blossom gave Brick a small smile of appreciation and said, "Thanks Brick."

Brick rolled his eyes slightly but took the praise nonetheless. "Yeah, don't mention it. Now then, what do you think the clue meant?"

Everyone thought for a moment but couldn't quite put their fingers on it.

"'Go to a place that covers the tide.' That would suggest it would be near, if not on, the water, right?" Asked Buttercup.

Both Blossom and Brick nodded on that one. "Yes, that's true Buttercup." Said Blossom.

Then Brick turned to Butch. "Butch, let me see that clue."

Butch handed Brick the clue so that he and Blossom could look it over themselves. Once they had it, Blossom immediately noticed something.

"Hey, peer is spelled wrong...well, wrong for the way it was used anyway." Said Blossom as she was pointing at it.

"Huh, what do you mean?" Asked Brick.

"Well, the way the sentence used to word 'peer' it should be spelled p-e-e-r, but this one is spelled p-i-e-r."

"Ok, so what's the difference?" Asked Brick.

Blossom turned to Brick and said, "P-i-e-r is a boat dock so, like Buttercup said, it's going to be near/on the water."

Brick looked back at the clue and nodded in agreement after a moment. "Alright, that makes sense to me." Then Brick remembered something. "Hey, when we first walked up to the house, we saw a lake off to the left of it didn't we?"

Blossom's face lit up and said, "Yeah we did."

"So that's where we're going?" Asked Boomer.

Brick nodded, "Yep, we are. Let's go you guys, we're almost done."

With that said, the kids went off to find the last clue to the treasure hunt unaware that a certain ghost was hiding nearby having heard every word, white eyes burning in anger.

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><p><strong>Ok, we're almost done with the bulk of the story. One more riddle left but the story won't end once the riddles are solved, there will be a few more chapters after that to give the story some closure. I would've posted this chapter much sooner, like two days ago, but something was wrong with the site; every few minutes, when I tried to save my progress, the site would say something along the lines of, this site has timed out, and a large portion of my so called 'saved' progress would be erased and I'd have to rewrite it all again. I think it's fixed now because I haven't had that issue at all today so things should be smooth sailing now. <strong>

**See you guys later.**


	16. Chapter 16

**The last clue this chapter, the climax next chapter, which now that I think about it may have to be split into 2 chapters but we'll see, then maybe 2 or 3 chapters after that to round off the story for closure...or to leave it open for a possible follow up story. Either way, we're almost done.**

**Chapter 16.**

* * *

><p>The kids had just arrived at the front of the house and looked over to their right and saw the lake in the distance. The fog had lifted for the most part as the night has gone on and now the only fog left was down around the lake itself and even that fog was thinning rapidly. Then Buttercup saw the pier. "Hey, there's the pier, and it has a boathouse on it too. I'll bet it's in there." Blossom nodded then turned to the group, "Ok guys, this is it. Let's find that treasure." Everybody eagerly nods in anticipation.<p>

While they were floating down to the boathouse, Brick motions for Boomer and Butch to fall back a little so that they can have a private conversation.

"What's up bro?" Asked Butch.

Brick had a slightly uneasy look on his face but he continued anyway, "I was wondering guys, when we find the treasure, how easy do you think it would be for us to just up and take it?"

Butch and Boomer were slightly taken aback at this but still responded to their brother's question. "Well, we'd probably have to fight the girls to do that but I think it'd be simple enough." Said Butch.

Boomer on the other hand was a bit more bothered by Brick's question. "Why do you want to do that in the first place Brick? The treasure belongs to that Harlot guy we found in the cave remember?"

Brick pinched his eyebrows in slight annoyance before answering, "Yeah, I know that, but we're the Rowdyruff Boys. We aren't the good guys here you know."

Butch nodded in agreement at that but Boomer still looked torn. "Yeah but, well, I mean, after everything we've been through tonight with the girls, not to mention we've watched each other's backs a couple of times, don't you think doing that would be a real jerky thing to do, even for us?"

Butch and Brick had to pause at that; Boomer did have a point. As big of jerks as they are, stealing the treasure right out from under the girls noses like that after everything that has happened tonight did seem a little too far.

"You know Brick, as much as I hate to say this, Boomer's right. Doing that would seem awfully low, even for us." Said Butch.

Brick looked back and forth between Butch and Boomer in slight shock but he really couldn't blame them. After all, even he was wondering whether or not they should do it himself.

After a moment of thinking, he said, "Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I just don't want to give Townsville the wrong idea or anything." At Butch and Boomer's questioning looks, Brick explained further. *sigh* "What I mean by that is, we don't want people to think we're going good or anything like that and we especially don't want Mojo or HIM to find out about all this either." Butch and Boomer's eyes widened at the mention of Mojo and HIM. What would they do if they found out about tonight's events?

"Oh man, I don't even want to think what they would do to us if they found out, especially HIM." Said Butch.

However, before they could discuss it further, Blossom said, "We're here."

The boys looked ahead to see an old, run down boathouse with the girls standing in front of the door trying to get it open. They quickly closed the gap to avoid any suspicion on the girl's part as to why they were a few yards back by themselves. As Blossom was trying to open the door, she turned around and said, "Just think you guys, the last clue to the treasure hunt is inside here."

Blossom opened the door and they all floated inside. The boathouse was falling apart; there were holes in the walls and ceiling, there was mold growing everywhere which gave the place a musty smell, and the wooden boat that was tied to the mooring was rotted. All in all, this place was as old and decrepit as the mansion itself.

"Yuck, this place is gross." Muttered Blossom.

"Yeah, not to mention, it looks completely safe what with all the loose 2x4s and whatnot hanging from the ceiling." Said Brick sarcastically.

Blossom just shook her head and said, "Ok guys, let's start looking."

The kids split up to search every nook and cranny of the boathouse but this time, they split up individually; they weren't in their colored pairs like they've been the rest of the night. Brick was searching through one of the many barrels in the boathouse, Blossom was looking up in the rafters, Boomer was searching through some old tackle boxes, Buttercup was looking though a group of cupboards along the back wall, and Butch was actually lifting several things off of the walls to see if there might be a hidden compartment or even a safe of some sort in the wall itself. Bubbles meanwhile had just finished looking into a large, rolled up bundle of rope and was now floating over to a large utility chest. Once she reached it, she opened the lid only to be met with a pair of glowing white eyes. She slammed the lid shut immediately afterward in fright but the lid opened on its own to reveal the skull ghost giving her the death stare.

Bubbles looked at the ghost in terror and shrieked, "AHHHHHHHHH! THE GHOST!" Bubbles took off running and bumped into Brick and Buttercup, making all three of them fall into the boat. Blossom, Butch, and Boomer flew over to them in the boat just as Brick asked, "Where? Where is it?"

Bubbles pointed to the utility chest saying, "Over there!"

They all looked at where she was pointing but saw only the open utility chest. Buttercup then sighed and said, "Bubbles, there's nobody there." Buttercup then face-palmed and continued, "Bubbles, I love you but you can be a real pain sometimes you know that?"

Bubbles turned to her sister and said, "I'm not crazy, I just saw it right there."

Before Buttercup could reply and before Blossom could tell Buttercup to stop, Boomer spoke up. "Guys...stop talking" He said slowly and with very wide eyes. Everybody turned toward him. Boomer continued, "Brick...look at your feet." Brick and everyone else did so and gasped in shock; lying at Brick's feet was a solid gold crown, with a fist sized, blue diamond in it. Brick picked it up and found the last clue attached to it on the bottom.

Brick grinned in triumph, "HA! Bingo!"

"Look at that thing." Said Buttercup in awe.

The others were in equal amazement. Blossom was practically bursting at the seams. "Hurry Brick! Read it, read it, read it!"

Brick had the clue in his hand but had to stop and give Blossom a strange look before he chuckled and said, "Wow, and this enthusiasm coming from the girl who said, and I quote, 'There is no way this is real. This has to be a Halloween prank or something.'"

Blossom blushed at hearing her own words being turned on her but decided that she didn't care at the moment. Smiling, Blossom just lightly jabbed Brick on the shoulder and said, "Oh, shut up Brick and just read the clue."

Brick chuckled again and said, "Alright, alright, keep your shirt on." The others crowded around Brick as he opened the clue, not noticing a dark figure near some rigging getting ready to pull a rope and throw what looked like some kind of smoke bomb.

"Ok, here we go, it says, 'No more riddles, here ends the chase, the treasures' in the fire place!'" Brick finished in excitement.

Just as everyone let's out a cheer of accomplishment, most notably, Butch yelling, "JACKPOT!", a deep, demonic voice they all know too well, calls out, **"In the fireplace, eh?"**

The kids freeze at the sound of the demonic voice and turn in its direction with a collective, "Huh?" Just then, a smoke bomb is thrown into the boat they were all sitting in and a thick cloud of smoke envelopes them. After coughing for a couple of seconds, the kids turn and look to see the skull ghost just as it pulls down on a rope and says, **"Thank you for solving the mystery for me. FOOLS!"** A large net falls from the ceiling and traps the kids under it. As the last of the smoke fades away, Buttercup looks at the net, then at the ghost, then back at the net again and says, "Really? A net, that's your ace in the hole?"

Then Butch adds, "Yeah ugly, we can just tear through this." Butch and Buttercup then try to do just that but make a terrifying discovery; they couldn't.

"What the...Hey, why can't I rip this thing apart?" Asked Buttercup.

"Yeah, what gives?" Asked Butch. At this point, Brick, Blossom, Bubbles, and Boomer are trying to tear apart the net too but to no avail.

"W-we're trapped!" Says Bubbles a little worried. Then the ghost starts laughing. **"Well of course you're trapped, I laced that smoke bomb with antidote X after all."**

The kids stare at the ghost in shock until Butch gets a look of absolute rage on his face as he angrily yells, "I KNEW IT! I KNEW THERE WAS SOMEONE ELSE IN THE HOUSE! YOU'RE NOT REALLY A GHOST ARE YOU?!"

The ghost stared at them for a moment before it chuckled darkly and said, **"No, I'm not."** And to further prove its point, the ghost pulled its robe open a bit to show a black box strapped to its waist.

"What's that?" Asked Blossom.

The ghost pushed a button on it and then spoke in a high-pitched, girly voice, "It's a voice-modifier, Blossom. I don't want you recognizing my voice after all."

The kids gasped in surprise as the ghost pushed the button again and restored the deep, demonic voice before it continued. **"I want to keep you guessing my true identity for the rest of your life." **

"You-you know my name?" Asked Blossom.

The ghost smirked, or at least did its best impression of a smirk due to the fact it had mandibles instead of a human jaw, and said, **"Oh yes Blossom, I know your name, Buttercup and Bubbles' too. In fact, you know who I am; we've met before."**

The girls were surprised to hear that. "Who are you?" Blossom demanded.

**"Oh come now Blossom, you're a smart girl, you figure it out." **The ghost then walked over and picked a harpoon up off of the wall. Everyone got a little nervous at that and Blossom asked, "What're you going to do with that?"

**"Well, first off, I was originally going to get rid of you brats personally, but since you found Nicholas Harlot and sent him to get the police, I'm going to have to dispose of you indirectly now." **Said the ghost with a venomous edge to its voice.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Asked Brick.

**"The antidote X is only temporary but it'll last long enough to dispose of you regardless." **The ghost then suddenly thrust the harpoon dangerously close to Boomer and through the bottom of the boat, making a hole allowing water to start pouring in.

"YOU'RE GOING TO DROWN US?!" Shrieked Blossom.

The ghost sneered at Blossom and said, **"Considering how I wanted to get rid of you originally, you're getting off easy." **

Everyone glanced at one another nervously before Brick said, "So you're not going to have any issues with drowning 6 kids at all?" The ghost just stared at them passively like a bored cat would stare at a toy it's grown tired of. Brick's eyes widen in disgust, "Dude, you're sick."

The ghost then kneeled down to eye level with them and said in an icy voice, completely devoid of any emotion, **"I couldn't care less about drowning 6 _creatures_ that were born as the result of a lab experiment."**

The kids recoil at the word 'creatures' and Blossom says, "What did you call us?"

The ghost just starts the boat's motor and says, **"Goodbye." **

The boat lurches forward and the ghost cuts the boat's mooring so that it can go out into the lake where the water would be deep enough.

As the ghost watches, the kids disappear into the fog hugging the lake's surface, it turns back toward the house and says, **"At last, the treasure is mine."**

* * *

><p><strong>Ok, I know this has suddenly turned a bit dark but trust me, there is a method to my madness. Now, it has been a while since I saw the uh...episode with the guy who is the ghost in this story and his personality but I know I got the basic gist of it correct. I'm going to watch this one particular episode to make sure I get it right for when I make the big reveal.<strong>

**Now, some of you have probably already guessed who the culprit is by this point and if you have, keep it to yourself please, don't spoil the surprise. We are nearing the end, I'm so excited, I'm almost finished with my first story ever.**

**Keep sending me your reviews guys, I love reading your responses.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Ok, like I said last time, I might have to chop the climax into 2 chapters and it looks like I'm going to have to do just that. However, that said, the 'ghost's' true identity will be revealed at the end of this chapter.**

**Chapter 17.**

* * *

><p>The motor boat had just burst out of the boat house and was moving at quite a clip out into the middle of the lake. The kids were still trying to get out of the net but it was so large that parts of the net were actually overboard and in the water preventing the kids from lifting the net up in any way, in their current, powerless, state.<p>

"Grrrrrr, I hate being without superpowers!" Growled Brick. "We can't even lift up a net right now!"

"Brick, you've got to stay calm!" Said Blossom as calmly as she could given the circumstances as well as loud enough to overcome the boat's engine. "We all need to if we want to survive this!"

"But, we can't even move from our spots we're so tangled up!" Said Boomer. The net had also restricted their movement about the boat itself on the account that parts of the net had gotten wrapped around their feet and legs. Because of this issue, Bubbles and Boomer were stuck at the front of the boat, Blossom and Brick were in the middle, and Buttercup and Butch were near the boat's engine at the back.

Blossom sighed, "I know that Boomer but we've got to keep our heads, if we don't, we could end up making a big mistake that would make this situation even worse!"

"Should we cut the engine? We're still moving out deeper into the center of the lake!" Asked Butch.

Brick turned back to his brother. "What?! Are you crazy?! We're already in deep water Butch, if you cut the engine now, we'll just drown in slightly less deep water!"

Buttercup responded, "Yeah, but we'll drown anyway if we keep going too you know!"

Then Bubbles suggested, "Hey, can't we just steer the boat back to shore?!"

The others looked at her for a moment before Blossom said, "Might as well. After all, the ghost, or whoever that was, said he had to get rid of us indirectly now that the police and Nicholas Harlot are coming up here. He's more than likely not watching to make sure we actually drown, so we could beach the boat somewhere on shore and not have to worry about him coming after us!"

Brick just shrugged his shoulders, "Works for me! Butch, Buttercup, turn the boat to the left, that's the direction the house is in!"

"No, turn to the right, towards the opposite shoreline!" Shouted Blossom. "He said the antidote X was only temporary but we still don't want to tempt him to come and investigate a crash when we still don't have our powers back yet!" Brick gave her a confused look so Blossom finished by saying, "We want to make sure our powers come back before we go after this guy! After all, we don't want to be caught by him when we're still powerless, then that white fire of his will do more than just burn us."

Brick wanted to argue with Blossom but after he thought about it for a moment, he realized she was right. If the 'ghost' caught them while they were still powerless, it was over. He turned back toward Butch and Buttercup and said, "You heard her, turn to the right!"

Buttercup and Butch nodded, even though Butch was a little surprised that Brick went along with what Blossom said, he didn't want to drown. They grabbed the handle of the outboard and turned the boat to the right. The water had just reached their knees and the boat was getting a little sluggish trying to pull water weight; pretty soon, the boat would just refuse to go any further and that would be the end for them.

However, the shoreline came into view a second later and everyone got a relieved look on their faces. "We're going to make it!" Shouted Boomer. Just then, though, the boat jerked violently to the right almost throwing Bubbles and Boomer from the bow of the boat. Everyone looked around in a panic when the boat suddenly jerked to the left just as violently.

"Blossom, what's happening?!" Shrieked Bubbles.

Blossom was asking herself that very same question when she noticed a large, but low profile, rock protruding a few inches above the surface of the water passing to their left. Blossom then realized what was happening; they were running aground and at a high speed as well. She turned toward Butch and Buttercup, "You guys, we're running aground and we're hitting submerged objects on the way in, that's what's causing the boat to jump around. We need to either kill the engine or slow it down now!"

The Greens nodded and tried to figure out how to shut the engine off but it was too late. Just then, Bubbles and Boomer screamed in unison, "LOG!" and in the blink of an eye, the boat was suddenly airborne and had turned 45 degrees to the left and had tilted to the right threatening to spill them all out when it came back down. The boat hit the water hard and broke into bits throwing the kids into the water and the outboard revved dangerously as it flew through the air.

* * *

><p>Up on the hillside leading away from the lake, the skull ghost had just reached the fence line when he heard the outboard rev dangerously in the distance, which meant that the propeller was not in the water anymore which, in turn, meant the Puffs and the Ruffs had reached land somehow. The ghost growled in frustration and wondered whether or not he should go back down and finish them off personally but decided he didn't have time. Harlot had probably called the police by now and was waiting near the road that would lead up to the house. He would have to find the treasure, grab as much as he can, and then leave. The ghost pulled the sleeve on his right arm back which revealed a silver colored, metal arm running along his own arm and strapped to that was a mini tablet with an energy read-out as well as tubes and lines filled with a glowing, white liquid linked up to what appeared to be electric igniters. The ghost looked at the energy read-out and, to his ire, it read low. The ghost swore under his breathe, if his first fight with Puffs and the Ruffs after they found the diamond on the roof didn't end in Buttercup causing serious damage to his exo suit, he could just fight his way out with no problem whatsoever. But, with the shape his suit is in, he'd have just enough power to fly back to his hideout on the outskirts of Townsville with the treasure in tow. With that thought in mind, the ghost picked up his pace in returning to the mansion.<p>

* * *

><p>The first thing Brick realized after opening his eyes, was that the water was dark and cold. The second thing he realized was that he was still underwater and needed to get up to the surface. In a slight panic, Brick swam up as fast as he could. His vision was blacking-out around the edges and was on the verge of drowning. However, he broke the surface of the water a moment later and gasped for air, relieved that he had made it. A moment later, Blossom popped up in front of him also gasping for air and quickly looked around before noticing Brick.<p>

*cough cough* "Brick, are you alright?"

*cough* "Yeah, I think so."

"Where-*cough*-where are the others?"

Brick looked around. "I'm not sure at the moment."

_*SNAP!*_

Brick and Blossom jerked their heads in the direction of the loud sound and saw the outboard had somehow ended up in the branches of a nearby tree that was hanging over the water. What really got their attention though was the fact that the motor had gotten tangled in the net and was now, due to its weight, breaking the branches of the tree and would fall and sink into the water. Brick and Blossom exchanged a nervous look before Brick asked the question neither of them wanted to ask, "Are we still tangled in the net?"

Both of them felt around their the legs and to their horror found that they still were. Just then, Butch and Buttercup came up gasping for air. After they caught their breath, Buttercup noticed Brick and Blossom to her right and she asked, "Hey, you guys ok?"

Brick looked pale which scared both greens as he answered, "Not really," and pointed at the outboard in the tree. Butch and Buttercup turned to look what he was pointing at and saw the problem. "Are you two still caught in the net too?" Asked Blossom. Butch and Buttercup glanced at each other before feeling around themselves and realized that they were.

_*SNAP!*_

All four of them snapped their heads back at the branch holding the outboard and saw it sagging; it wasn't going to support the engine's weight much longer. With wide eyes, Blossom shouted, "SWIM FOR SHORE, QUICK!"

_*CRACK!*_

The Branch broke and the engine fell into the water, dragging the net down with it. Butch and Buttercup were a few feet behind Brick and Blossom just as they felt the net jerk. Butch and Buttercup were pulled down just enough to put their mouths at water level making it very hard to get air without water getting in at the same time. Brick and Blossom had just managed to reach shallow water, it was still deep enough that they could drown in it if they lost their footing but they could grab onto rocks and roots to try and pull themselves, as well as Butch and Buttercup, out.

Brick and Blossom were able to grab onto some tree roots just before the engine jerked the net. Brick's roots were secure but Blossom's weren't as they gave way and Blossom started to get dragged back into the water.

"AHHHHHHH!" Blossom screamed as she desperately tried to regain some kind of footing so that she could grab at something else.

Just as her head was about to go back underwater, something grabbed her arm. Blossom looked up and saw that Brick had let go of his root so that he could slide down a bit and catch Blossom while grabbing a lower root at the same time.

"Hand on Pinkie! I got you!" Brick pulled as hard as he could and managed to pull Blossom up and out of the water enough so that she could breathe. "Quick, grab onto that rock over there and pull, I can't hold all this weight for long!" Brick nodded his head to Blossom's right to which she turned and saw the rock in question. Blossom grabbed the rock, got a good grip and said, "Alright Brick, I'm good." Brick nodded and let Blossom's arm go so that he could get a better grip on the root he was holding on to.

As Blossom pulled herself up a bit more, she looked back and noticed, to her horror, that Butch and Buttercup had gone back underwater entirely and all she could see were their arms waving around frantically. She turned to Brick, and with hysteria creeping into her voice, screamed, "BRICK, PULL WITH EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT! BUTCH AND BUTTERCUP ARE DROWNING!"

Having heard the hysteria in Blossom's voice when she said that, adrenalin surged into Brick's veins and he immediately pulled himself up into the tree roots and wedged himself into them. Blossom, getting what Brick was going for, did the same as she climbed up and onto the rock and found a place where she could wedge her feet.

Brick turned to Blossom and said, "Alright Pinkie, on three, PULL!" Blossom nodded. "One, two, THREE!"

They both started pulling the net trying to bring Butch and Buttercup back above the surface of the water again. Just as they started though, Buttercup's arms disappeared. Blossom started to panic, wondering if Buttercup had already drowned and they were too late. A couple moments later however, Buttercup popped up, gasping for air. She had somehow freed herself from the net.

"Buttercup, are you alright!"

*pant pant* "Yeah." She said breathlessly. Buttercup then turned to her right and saw Butch still underwater. "HOLY-...BUTCH!" She exclaimed with wide eyes. Buttercup dove back underwater. Brick and Blossom glanced at each other before looking back out to where they could see Butch's arms still flailing above the water. A moment later, his arms then disappeared. Brick quickly looked around to see if his brother would pop up like Buttercup did just a moment ago. Not only did Butch do just that a moment later, but Buttercup was with him, helping him surface. Buttercup had gone back underwater to untangle Butch from the net and then helped him back to the surface as he was just about to pass out from lack of oxygen. Buttercup helped Butch to the shallow water where they could actually crawl to shore, to catch their breath.

*pant pant* "Thanks Buttercup. I owe you one." *cough cough*

*pant* "Don't mention it." *pant*

Brick was beyond relived and Blossom called out, "Good job Buttercup!" Buttercup waved her arm as an indication that she had heard her sister's praise.

Just then, the net suddenly went slack and Brick and Blossom fell back into the water with a startled yelp. When they came back up, Brick asked, "What happened?"

Blossom shook her head, "I'm not sure but I think the engine slipped out of the net."

Brick shrugged, "Oh, well that explains it." As he started to untangle himself from the net with Blossom doing the same.

"Uhhhh, Blossom?" Blossom's blood ran cold at the way Buttercup shakily said her name but she couldn't understand why.

Blossom turned and asked nervously, "Yes Buttercup?"

Buttercup was currently looking around with a panicked look on her face before she asked rather worriedly, "Where's Bubbles?"

Blossom's eyes shot open at that. She looked around just like Buttercup did for her blue sister but couldn't see her anywhere.

"Hey, Boomer's missing too." Said Butch just as worried.

Now Brick was frantically looking around as well muttering, "Oh shit," under his breath.

"Are they-" Blossom started to ask but was cut off as the sound of someone surfacing from underwater was heard. They all turned in the direction of the sound to see Boomer stumbling from the water with Bubbles over his shoulder. When Boomer reached the shoreline, he set Bubbles down on the ground and started looking her over for any serious injuries. Blossom and Buttercup came rushing over almost as soon as Boomer surfaced and where by their sister's side in a heartbeat, Brick and Butch staying back a few feet.

"Bubbles, are you alright?!" They both exclaimed, but Bubbles didn't respond. At least not verbally; she was conscious and looking around but there was a glassy look creeping into her eyes and she was slightly blue in color. The others didn't completely understand until she weakly motioned with her hand, pointing at her throat, that she couldn't breathe.

Blossom and Buttercup's eyes widened to the size of moons but before they could do anything, Boomer picked Bubbles up, flipped her over, and then smacked her hard on the back a few times. After a couple moments of this, Bubbles started to cough but they were weak coughs and not sufficient enough to void the water in her lungs. With desperation setting in, Boomer said with pained determination, "Sorry Bubbles, but this is going to hurt." The others looked at Boomer in a questioning manner for a moment, what did he mean by that? Boomer then sat Bubbles up in a sitting position, pulled his arm back, and punched her in the stomach as hard as he could. Bubbles eyes widened in pain for a moment, lurching forward, before she vomited all the water out of her lungs. After that had happened, Bubbles took in a massive breath of air then began coughing loud and strong as well as her complexion returning to normal. Blossom and Buttercup then embrace Bubbles in a hug, happy that she can breath again and that she's going to be alright.

Boomer had to smile despite the fact that he had just saved a puff as he looked at the three of them. Brick and Butch then came over and Butch said, "Dude, granted that drowning is probably one of the most unpleasant ways to go, you do realize you just saved a puff, right?"

Boomer just gave Butch a sideways 'really' look before replying, "Well, what about you saving Buttercup from the cannon blast earlier down in the basement?"

Butch opened his mouth to respond but he couldn't say anything, Boomer had a point. "Oh, right...yeah, good point." Boomer just gave Butch a small smirk as a response.

"Don't push it." Butch said warningly.

Brick just shook his head; yes, Boomer had just saved one of the puffs but so had he when Blossom slipped off the roots and, just like Boomer said, Butch had saved Buttercup from the cannon blast earlier. Not to mention, the girls had saved them all once as well; Bubbles had saved Boomer from the spiked, ceiling booby trap in the tunnel under the cemetery, Buttercup had just rescued Butch from drowning and helped him to shore a few minutes ago, and he himself was saved from a point-blank shot to the head from the ghost soldier by Blossom. While they all owed each other a lot for what has happened tonight, he was still a little uncomfortable with how friendly they were acting toward each other now. Before he could think more on the subject though, Blossom's voice cut through his train of thought.

"Are you sure you're ok Bubbles?"

Bubbles nodded, *cough* "Yeah, I'm ok." *cough*

"Are you sure?" Blossom pushed.

"Yes I'm sure. I promise you." Bubbles then turned to Boomer. "Boomer, thank you so much." Bubbles then gave Boomer a hug and, again, Boomer had to smile. "Aw, don't mention it. Besides, I owed you one for saving me in the tunnel with the booby traps earlier."

Bubbles smiled at that but coughed again. Blossom and Buttercup inched closer to Bubbles to help in any way but Bubbles pushed them away slightly. "Guys, I swear I'm fine. I will say this though," everybody gave her their full attention, "air is so underrated."

Everyone paused at that for a moment before they all snickered, then burst out laughing. Blossom was the only one who didn't quite get the joke though.

"Huh, what are you saying?"

Brick then tapped Blossom on the shoulder. "I think what she means by that is that you don't truly appreciate something until you lose it. In her case, it was breathing." Blossom had a look that said she understood the meaning but the joke about it was still eluding her. Brick sighed and said, "All you really need to understand Pinkie, is that if she can joke about this, then she's going to be just fine, trust me." Blossom looked Brick in the eye and to her shock found herself doing just that, she did trust him...on that bit of advice anyway. Everyone then just collapsed to the ground, exhausted, and began wondering what their next move was going to be.

"So, what's our next move you guys?" Asked Boomer.

"We wait until our powers come back, then we head up to the house and turn that Halloween reject into a real ghost since he loves to pretend he is one." Said Butch angrily.

"I'm all for that." Replied Buttercup just as angrily.

"No you guys, we can't just kill this guy even if he is a horrible person." Said Blossom.

Brick thought for a moment before saying, "Well, maybe you and your sisters can't Pinkie, but we can."

Blossom turned to Brick in alarm, "What?"

Brick rolled his eyes, "What I mean is, you three have standards and what not to uphold for the city right? Well, my brothers and I aren't law-abiding citizens, so we could-" But Blossom quickly cut him off.

"Brick, you don't know what you're saying. Trust me when I say, taking the life of another living being is something that will change your life forever. It'll eat away at you from the inside out."

Brick looked at Blossom in confusion. "How would you know? You've never killed anyone before."

Blossom looked stricken as she replied, "Yes we have Brick. We killed the three of you when we kissed you, remember?"

Brick's eyebrows shot up into his hair upon hearing that. "Wait, killing **us** bothered you three?" He glanced at Buttercup and Bubbles and saw that they were actually looking down at the ground in pain of, what he assumed to be, the memory.

"Yes, Brick. It did." Blossom said solemnly. Brick looked over at Butch and Boomer and noticed they were just as confused as he was at the moment so he asked Blossom to explain.

"How did it bother you though? We were trying to kill you three at the time and at one point we thought we did after we slammed you into the ground so hard that a blinding flash of light engulfed all of downtown. If killing someone really is as life changing as you say it is, then how come it didn't bother us at that moment when we were watching the light die down or as we were sitting with Mojo back his pad having a drink and laughing?"

Blossom just gave him a sad smile. "Because Brick, since we're kids, it takes time for something like that to sink in. I mean, after we had beaten you three that day, we laughed too but more so at the realization that we actually liked kissing. It wasn't until about two days later that the realization of what we had done hit us. For the next three days; I was so sick to my stomach with guilt that I didn't feel like eating anything at all, Bubbles never smiled, giggled, or was happy in general in any way, and Buttercup skipped her training sessions in the training room we have and she has never done that, ever, before or since." Blossom wiped away a small tear that had just run down her cheek. "Please believe me Brick, that isn't something you want to carry with you for the rest of your life."

To say the boys were shocked would be an understatement. Looking at the girls' expressions, they knew they were telling them the truth.

Brick sat up on both his knees and looked Blossom in the eyes and asked, "You really were bothered by killing us?"

Blossom nodded.

Brick just shivered at this, he had always thought the girls couldn't have cared less about that. He turned away from Blossom so that he could avoid looking at the pain in her eyes, something that never bothered him before. In fact, on any other day, he would've loved to see pain in her eyes; being created for the sole purpose of destroying them and all, it kind of came with the 'job description.' But this, this was something that for whatever reason, really made him sick just thinking about it. Then Butch spoke up.

"Hey wait, after HIM brought us back and after you guys had beaten us again, why did I hear Buttercup say, 'let's squish them', if killing us really bothered you?"

Buttercup, having a shameful look on her face, replied, "I just said that to scare you guys, I really wouldn't have done that. The main reason I said that at all was to just get a little sisterly payback for **someone** sticking a slug down Bubbles' shirt."

Butch had the decency to look sheepish as well as rub the back of his head saying, "Uhhhh, yeah, heh, right, that."

A moment of silence passed. Then Bubbles spoke up.

"So, what are we going to do? While I agree with Blossom in the fact that we can't just kill this guy, I think part of what Butch was saying was, we can't let him get away with this either, so...?"

Blossom was thinking about what to do and asked everyone, "Can anyone use their powers yet?"

Everybody focused their abilities and after a few moments, Boomer started to float, Buttercup and Butch both shot eye beams at the ground, Brick created a ball of energy in his hands, Blossom was able to use her ice breath on a nearby log, and Bubbles began gathering water around her hand like she did earlier when she demonstrated her healing powers. This action gave Bubbles an idea.

"Alright, we got our powers back. Let's head up there and give this jerk what for." Said Brick. Everyone nodded in response

"Wait, before we head up there, let me do something first." Said Bubbles.

Everyone looked at her for a moment as she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then let it out in a meditative manner. Before the others could ask what she was doing, the water around them started to shimmer and glow, then it began to flow up their legs and then their bodies and finally their arms. It took a moment but the others realized what Bubbles was doing; she was healing everyone as well as rejuvenating them for when they confront the skull ghost up at the mansion.

After about 30 seconds, the water receded and Bubbles opened her eyes, with the exception of their tattered costumes, everyone looked like they were at 100%. Brick threw a few practice punches and nodded in approval before turning to Bubbles and saying, "Don't get used to me saying this but, thanks. That feels a lot better." Butch and Boomer also nod in appreciation for what Bubbles just did and Bubbles just gave them a large smile.

"Alright, everyone good?" Asked Blossom.

Everyone turned toward her and nodded.

"Ok...let's go get him." She finished in a determined tone and they all took off toward the house.

* * *

><p>Just as they came into view of the house, Blossom led them all to the ground and told them to stay out of sight.<p>

"What are we sneaking around back here for Pinkie? We should be kicking in the front door." Said Brick impatiently.

Blossom held up her hands to placate Brick, "Easy Brick, were just making sure he doesn't see us coming." Then Blossom grinned a little mischievously before continuing. "After all, catching this creep by surprise will be much more satisfying on the account he's expecting us to be at the bottom of that lake by now."

Brick's eyes widened in surprise at that. Blossom had a point, this jerk had no idea that they were still alive and about to kick in the front door any minute. Also, why didn't he think of that? That should've been something he'd have come up with, easily.

"Oooooooo, that's...devious. Wow Pinkie, I'm impressed. I didn't know you could be evil." Brick said with a hint of actual sincerity.

"Ppppfffttt, I wouldn't call it evil Brick, it's more like," Blossom thought for a moment for the right words, "what goes around, comes around. He's tried to scare the living daylights out of us this whole venture, now it's our turn to scare him."

Brick gave Blossom an evil grin, "Heh, heh, heh, I love it."

Just then, the kids hear sirens in the distance. "Hey, you guys hear what I hear?" Said Boomer.

Buttercup nodded, "Yep, I sure do."

"That would be Nicholas Harlot and the police then." Said Blossom looking back in the direction they heard the sirens coming from. Looking back at the house Blossom says, "Come on guys, we need to corner this 'ghost' before he hears them too, cause once he does, he's going to take off." The others nod and they quickly but quietly fly up to the house.

Once there though, they find the front door had been kicked in, or rather blown open, by the ghost's fire powers as evidenced by the charred door jam and stray embers all around the front foyer. Everyone glanced at each other before silently floating inside and looking around just in case the ghost did see them approach. Just then, they heard the ghost talking to himself, **"In the fireplace eh? Let's see..."**

Everyone froze and Blossom turned back and motioned with her hands that he was in the den and to stay quiet. Everyone nodded and followed Blossom to the den where they all peeked around the corner and saw the ghost standing in front of the fire place.

**"There must be a lever or a button here someplace...AH-HA!"** The ghost reaches up and pulls an old torch decoration that had some kind of hinge mechanism built into it, down and somewhere inside the fireplace, as well as above it, there was the sound of things moving and sliding into place. On the mantle of the fireplace, three of the carvings began rotating like slots on a slot machine as the ghost began laughing in triumph. **"HA HA HA HA HA, I GOT IT!"**

At this point, Blossom had seen enough, she turned and nodded to the others and they all jumped out from around the corner to face the ghost.

"Not yet you don't!" Said Brick.

The ghost spun around in slight alarm, he knew the kids had survived but he wasn't prepared for them to arrive this quickly. He activated his fire powers in the form of two fireballs, one in each hand.

**"Stay back!"**

"I don't think so you Halloween reject, we have you outnumbered and now that we know you're not a ghost, we're not going to let you scare us anymore!" Yelled Blossom, the others giving a single determined nod.

The ghost growled, **"I'm warning you, I have more than enough power left to put all six of you on your death beds, so if I were you, I would leave while you still can."**

Everyone gave the ghost a hard glare and Brick said with venom dripping from his voice, "Make us."

The ghost narrowed his eyes and began to wind back his arms to attack but before he could, the three spinning slots stopped and there was a loud bang behind and above the fireplace. The ghost turned around just as a mountain of gold, diamonds, pearls, rubies, and sapphires came pouring out of the fireplace flue and promptly buried the ghost up to his neck. The kids, being several feet away, where spared from being buried but nonetheless were in complete and utter shock at what they were looking at. Everyone's jaw had hit the floor.

"Whoa." Said Boomer and Bubbles in a low whisper and in unison...and that was all they could say at the moment.

"Would you look at those diamonds! No, wait, the gold, no I mean the rubies...GAHHH! JUST LOOK AT ALL OF IT!" Said Buttercup.

Butch was shaking his head in disbelief. "Ok, I know I said this already down at the boathouse when we found the gold crown but...JACKPOT!"

"This is a family fortune? It looks more like a king's ransom!" Said Brick in complete shock.

Blossom shook herself out of her stupor and glared at the ghost saying, "We-we'll deal with the treasure when Harlot and the police get here." Blossom then started floating up to the ghost with the intent to pull the mask off. "Right now, I want to know who he is." She finished while pointing at him. The others then focused their attention on the ghost and gave it a hard glare.

Blossom stopped right in front of the ghost's face, reached out and grabbed the mask, and pulled it off. The man Blossom saw made her gasp in shock and quickly back away. Buttercup and Bubbles also looked at the man in stunned silence.

"Y-you?! But...that's impossible. You-you died." Blossom said somewhere between horror and anger.

"Close...but no cigar my dear." Said the man in a normal human voice. His voice changer had obviously been damaged by the mountain of treasure burying him.

"Whoa, wait a minute Pinkie, you and your sisters really do know this guy?" Asked Brick.

Blossom just nodded and responded, "Yes...we do. His name is Professor Dick Hardly."

* * *

><p><strong>Heh heh heheeee...surprise.<strong>

**See? I told you guys it was someone the girls knew.**

**Now, before you all send me email saying, but he was killed at the end of the powerpuff girls episode 'Knock it off', I'm aware he was killed there but let me say this; at the end of the episode, 'The Rowdyruff Boys' we saw the boys blow up/die, at the end of the episode, 'Twisted Sister' we saw Bunny blow up/die, now what did we see at the end of "Knock it Off'? Yes, Dick turned into a monster after swallowing the chemical X, yes the clones attacked and swarmed him, yes he fell into a pit of green fire and yes the last scene we see is his 'secret' lab blowing up and we hear him screaming, but, we don't actually see him blow up/die...so I'm proposing he may have found a way to survive, if only barely, and, well, here he is.**

**I'll go into more detail about this in the next chapter.**

**I'm sorry for the long wait you guys but hey, better late than me saying, 'this story has been abandoned' right?**

**Happy New Year everybody!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18 and I am so sorry for the long wait again. Life has an annoying way of causing delays. Anyway, if you don't know who Dick Hardly is, watch the PPG episode 'Knock it Off' and you'll see what kind of inhuman piece of trash he is. The police chief in this chapter is the same police chief from the episode 'Cop Out.' I don't know his name so if he does have one, please let me know in a PM so that I can add it.**

* * *

><p>"His name is professor Dick Hardly." Said Blossom.<p>

"Ok, who is Professor Dick Hardly?" Asked Brick.

Blossom narrowed her eyes at Dick and explained in a cold voice. "Dick Hardly was once our father's friend. They went to college together but Dick secretly cheated on his work and slacked off when our father wasn't looking. Basically, Dick used him to pass college without having to do any actual work and treated him like dirt."

Blossom paused for a moment before continuing further. "One day, Dick called the Professor telling him he was coming for a visit. When he got here and saw us using our superpowers to clean the house he thought he could use us to make a lot of money but the Professor asked Dick to leave after that. You see Brick, Dick only saw us as...objects...things that he could profit off of, not three little girls who were born with superpowers. The next day, after we were leaving school, Dick pulled up to us and offered us a ride home."

Brick had to stop Blossom there, "Hey, wait. If he treated you three like objects, then why did you get in his car that day?"

Blossom sighed, "We...didn't see it at the time Brick. We figured it out later...and it nearly cost us our lives." The boys were a little wide eyed at this point and Brick motioned for Blossom to continue.

"Anyway, he mentioned that the world was a big place and that there was evil everywhere. We wouldn't be able to protect everyone, everywhere, at the same time so he basically proposed that he could make more of us to help protect the world form other evil doers."

Brick interrupted again, "Wait, so, at one point there was, like, an army of Powerpuff girls?"

Blossom gave a dry, humorless laugh. "Essentially yes, and some of them worked fairly well but most of them were disfigured which Dick labeled as rejects and had them stored at his factory for slave labor or to just keep them out of the public eye. After a couple of days went by, we saw an infomercial that starred Dick, advertising "The Powerpuff Girls with Chemical Xtreme." When we saw that, we knew he had lied to us; he didn't actually want to help the world, he just wanted to make a quick buck, actually capitalize from other people's pain. He only offered the 'xtreme puffs' to those cities that would pay for them."

Blossom glared at Dick as she continued, "When we flew off to find his lab, and eventually we did due to the fact that he was yelling at the time and we were able to hear him with our enhanced hearing, we cornered him there and demanded that he give the chemical X we gave him back, but he didn't. Instead, he actually swallowed it, glass bottle and all, whole. To say this shocked us would be an understatement since we all know how dangerous it is."

At this point, the boys are staring at Dick in disbelief; what kind of lunatic just swallows chemical X?

"At first nothing happened to him but then he fell to the ground and started convulsing or shaking uncontrollably as well as foaming at the mouth until it just suddenly stopped. He stood up and said he thought he was going to turn into a monster...which he actually started to do before he even finished speaking. He grew somewhere in the neighborhood to 50-60 feet tall, his skin turned yellow-green, these tentacles grew from his chest, spikes grew from his shoulders, and his pony tail turned into a tentacle as well. We then started fighting but in the end, Dick overpowered us and trapped us in a glass chamber that started to drain us of our chemical X life force, literally sucking the life from us."

Brick had noticed that Buttercup was giving Dick a look of absolute hate and Bubbles looked like she had just woken up from an awful nightmare, which, if what Blossom was telling them was the truth, wasn't too far off. As for Blossom herself, it looked like she was just having a hard time recounting the experience. She obviously didn't like talking about this at all.

Blossom went on, "A little while later, the Professor came in and saw what Dick had been doing...as well as seeing us dying. He begged Dick to stop hurting us to which Dick said if the Professor agreed to stay at his factory and make chemical X forever, then he would spare us." Blossom was trying hard not to cry at the memory but a couple tears had leaked out and went down her face. She grit her teeth as she said, "But he lied. After he got the Professor to agree to his terms he went ahead and continued to drain the remainder of our life energy and he got the clones to drag him away from us. The Professor told us he loved us and we said the same to him and then everything went black. The next thing we knew, we were outside and the Professor was holding us, crying over our death."

Brick took a step back in shock. "Wait! You guys died?"

Blossom nodded and said, "Yeah, but the Professor's love for us brought us back. Later, the Professor filled in the blanks on what happened. What had happened after we had...died, was that the clones, realizing that Dick never showed them any love, turned on him and freed us so that the Professor could get us out of the building while the clones attacked and brought Dick down. After we were revived, we saw the lab explode and heard Dick scream in pain immediately afterward so we all assumed he had perished in the blast and the blazing inferno that followed, but obviously," Blossom turned and gave Dick a cold, hard glare, and spoke with malice, "he found some way to survive."

Brick was surprised to hear malice in Blossom's voice. He knew it takes a lot to make the girls express true hatred toward anyone and as far as he knew, the only being the girls truly hated was HIM. He glanced at Dick and realized he had been smiling throughout the whole story, no sign of remorse graced his features. He was proud of what he did to the girls and would do it again if given the chance. Brick glared at Dick Hardly and for reasons he didn't fully understand, he felt sick to his stomach while he was in this man's presence.

"Dude, you're evil. Even by our standards, you're evil. I mean, seriously, what the hell?"

Blossom snapped her head over to look at Brick, shocked beyond belief that Brick would actually sympathize with them in any way.

"Not to mention sick." Muttered Boomer. Bubbles let a small smile grace her face hearing Boomer say that.

"Hell, he even makes Mojo look like a saint." Added Butch. Buttercup blinked and had to do a double take at Butch for that before she went back to glaring at Dick.

Dick began quietly chuckling to himself before saying, "This coming from the boys who were literally created for the sole purpose of destroying them. Heh heh heh...what a joke."

Brick stiffened at that and replied, "That may be true, but we have never dragged out their destruction like the way you did. The first time we just slammed them into the ground and the second time we were..."

Dick interrupted here, saying, "Essentially beating them to death." Dick grinned evilly. "That's not exactly a nice way to go either you know. So who are you to call me evil boy?"

Brick opened his mouth to respond but closed it a moment later. He didn't know what to say. He looked at Blossom who in turn glanced back at him, Brick then quickly looked away while addressing Dick, "Well I...They...We...Shut up!"

Dick just laughed and shook his head. "That's what I thought. You can't argue with me on something like this without being a hypocrite my boy." Dick then put on a mocking facade of understanding as he said, "But, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. I mean after all, since all six of you creatures are the same when you get right down to it, it only makes sense that you would sympathize with them in the long run."

Bricks's eyes flashed angerly as he punched Dick across the face while Blossom tried to restrain him.

"Don't call us that!" He yelled trying to get out of Blossom's hold to punch him again.

"Brick, stop!" Blossom screamed. "Don't let him get to you! You're, and I never thought I would say something like this to you, but, you're better than him! Don't stoop to his level!"

Brick stopped and looked at Blossom like she just grew a second head. "What? How am I...? After everything my brothers and I put you and Townsville through, how can you say I'm better than him?"

Blossom smiled and said, "Because of everything that's happened tonight. Sure, it was a rocky start but after awhile, we started getting along, we helped each other out, we saved each other, you and Butch showed compassion and sympathy for Boomer when he got shot by the soldier, we praised each other when we figured out the clues to the treasure hunt, I could keep going Brick."

Brick just stared at Blossom in disbelief; she was actually saying something positive about he and his brothers. He relaxed and Blossom let him go so that she could address Dick once more.

"Why do you call us creatures Dick? Is it because we have superpowers? Is it because we look a little different than other human beings? Is it..."

Dick started laughing at this point and said, "Human beings? Are you serious? You were never human, you weren't born you were created. Created by means of an explosion caused by a science experiment gone wrong."

Blossom stared at Dick in disbelief. "That's what it means to be human to you?! Simply being born as one? Not the expierences of life, what you're taught and learn, the friends you make, the emotions you experience, and love you gain and witness when you come into this world?"

Dick just smirked at Blossom and the way he did it unnerved Brick because it looked a lot like his own. Is that how I really look when I smirk like that?

Then Dick answered Blossom's question. "The way you six were created would put you well within the rights of a patent. Both of your creators, Utonium and Mojo respectively, could have and should have, patented your creation and made a fortune. You were created in a laboratory setting just like most ground breaking inventions are so you should be treated like the objects that you are."

Everyone was looking at Dick in disgust at this point and Brick worded everyone's thoughts perfectly, "Yeah, 'objects' that can speak, think, and feel you jack-ass."

Just then, everyone heard the sound of tires screeching to a halt and the voices of police officers as well as Nicholas Harlot outside.

"Well, this should be interesting." Said Brick. "I wonder how the cops are going to react when you tell them we aren't the problem."

Blossom gave Brick a half smile, "They probably won't believe us at first, more than likely."

The police then walk in and take in the sight before them; a mountain of treasure has buried a man up to his neck, the Powerpuff girls are with the Rowdyruff boys and are NOT fighting them, and all of their Halloween costumes are ripped and tattered for reasons currently unknown. The chief of police then walks in with Nicholas Harlot right behind him, takes everything in, and then asks the obvious question.

"Girls, what's going on here? Are the RRB causing trouble here or...?"

Blossom politely interrupts by saying, "No chief, believe it or not, the RRB aren't the problem tonight." Blossom then turns and points to Dick. "That man is the problem."

The police chief looks at the man in question but is also slightly distracted by the mound of treasure he's currently buried in. "Uhh, Harlot, is this your family's fortune you were telling us about?"

Nicholas was a little wide eyed at what he was seeing but responded to the chief's question. "Yes sir, it is...but to be honest, I wasn't expecting it to be this big. It looks more like a king's ransom."

"Well, that's funny, I said the exact same thing." Said Brick.

The Chief glanced at Brick for a second before turning his attention to Blossom. "Blossom, do you know who this man is?"

Blossom nodded solemnly and said, "Unfortunately, yes."

The chief raised an eyebrow in confusion so Blossom quickly ran through their history again as well as explained what he tried to do to them tonight just before they got there.

The Chief, Nicholas, and the other officers gave Dick a disgusted look before the Chief said, "Drag him out of there and place him under arrest."

When the officers did drag him out, everyone saw that Dick was wearing something under his ghost costume and the officers removed it so they could see what it was. Upon removing it, they found what looked to be some sort of metal frame connected to a somewhat large, matte black, metal housing on his back that had a power relay on it as well as what appeared to be some sort of pressurized canisters with a little glowing white fluid in them. From these canisters ran small lines that carried this fluid to the wrists where they opened up at spark igniters. Curious, one of the officers touched a small button near the spark igniters to see what it did and suddenly a blast of white fire shot from Dick's wrist. This surprised everyone, but the Puffs and Ruffs recognized it immediately.

"So that's where your 'fire power' came from you cheating bastard." Brick muttered darkly.

Dick just chuckled. "Yes, a little reverse engineering of some chemical X and a special magnetic generator that gave me complete control of the flames allowing me to create specific fire 'weapons' such as the flame whip I used to attack Buttercup in our first fight." Dick then frowned. "Fortunately for you brats, Buttercup also caused irreparable damage to that generator when she hit me with that air slash or whatever it was thus preventing me from using it from that point on."

Buttercup blinked in confusion. She thought back to that first fight, specifically when she hit Dick with her energy slash and she did remember a strange electrical arching effect and Dick immediately retreated afterward. Buttercup then smirked, "Oh yeah, I remember that. I bet I really ticked you off after I broke your little toy huh?"

Dick just growled in response.

Boomer floated up to Dick to get a better look at what he was wearing. "What is this thing he's wearing anyway?"

The Chief got a better look at the metal frame and immediately figured out what it was. "That's an exo suit."

All the kids looked at the police chief with a confused look so he elaborated.

"An exo suit is a wearable piece of tech that can make the wearer super-human; they can run 3x faster for 4x as long, jump 10x their height, bench press 30x what they could normally, squat 70x what the could normally, this suit is how he was able to fight you six on a level playing field."

The kids were surprised, technology like this existed and was apparently readily available enough for someone like Dick Hardly to get his hands on? Then the Chief added, "The thing that bothers me the most though is that this is supposed to be available only to the military, and even then, I think they're still working the kinks out of it." The Chief narrowed his eyes at Dick and asked, "How did you get your hands on something like this Dick and how do you have something more advanced than what the military have?"

Dick smiled. "One of my legitimate skills is hacking so I just found a way to hack a military computer and downloaded a bunch of files and one of those files had the blueprints of the exo suit in it. As to why my suit is more advanced than theirs, well, I'm fairly gifted when it comes to mechanics so working out the kinks was trail and error for me until I solved the problems they were having." Dick said with a hint of pride. "I even added something of my own design, an anti-gravity generator that gave me the ability to fly around."

The kids gasped, "So that's how you were able to fly!" Exclaimed Blossom.

Dick smirked, "Correct my dear."

Just then, a golden necklace with a diamond in it fell out of Dick's pocket and Butch, Buttercup, and Blossom immediately recognized it.

"Hey, that's the necklace that headless ghost took from you in the attic Blossom!" Exclaimed Buttercup.

Butch narrowed his eyes. "So you were that ghost." Dick nodded in confirmation. Butch growled, "I'll bet you were the soldier too, weren't ya?" Again, Dick nodded and said, "Yes, I was the soldier once or twice."

Blossom just shook her head. "Wow, you really were busy tonight weren't ya?"

Dick chuckled, "Well, trying to keep up with you six crea-"

"Stop right there! You call us that word one more time, I'll punch you so hard you'll think it's last week!" Brick angrily threatened while invading Dick's personal space. Blossom grabbed Brick by the shoulder and gently pulled him back saying, "Take it easy Brick, he's not worth it." Brick turned to look at Blossom with angry eyes but relaxed a moment later and backed away.

"Alright, get him out of here." Said the Chief. The other officers nodded and escorted Dick out of the house.

"Officer Perez." Said the Chief and one of the remaining officers turned toward him.

"Yes sir?"

"Get a few more squad cars up here and call in an armored truck service to properly load and transport this...King's ransom to a more secure location."

Perez nodded, "Right away sir."

The chief then turned back toward the boys and the girls and had to ask something.

"Girls, if you don't mind my asking, why exactly are you with the RRB."

The girls glanced at each other before Blossom explained, "Well, this whole thing started with a bet and..." Blossom's eyes widened, "Hey, the bet!"

"The what?" Asked Brick.

Blossom turned toward Brick in complete shock, "The bet, Brick. The whole reason we came to this house in the first place, remember?"

Brick blinked in confusion for a moment before the realization hit him like a freight train. "Oh my god...I can't believe we forgot about that." He said in a hushed voice.

The others were just as shocked, Butch in particular. "Yeah, how the heck do we forget about betting all of our Halloween candy?!"

The Chief was a bit confused so Blossom finished explaining. "Ok, chief, here's what happened, we were trick or treating earlier when we bumped into the boys, we exchanged some, quote unquote, witty banter, Brick mentions he found a haunted house and invited us to come with them to prove we were braver than they thought we were, Buttercup ups the ante by suggesting we bet our candy, we all come here, we end up seeing a ghost out in the cemetery out back which we now know was Dick in disguise but at the time scared the living daylights out of us, we run back to the house, find Bubbles and Boomer hiding in the refrigerator in the kitchen, they look in the ice box and find the first diamond and clue and, well, you know the rest. We go on a treasure hunt and find out the ghost was an old enemy of ours."

The Chief shakes his head in amazement. He looks back and forth between the girls and the boys before saying, "Well, thank goddness you're all ok."

Brick quickly looks at the Chief in surprise and says, "Wait, you actually care about what would happen to the three of us, even after all the hell we've put the city through?"

The Chief shrugged his shoulders, "Well, granted you three are a menace to this city, you're still children and a deranged psychopath did try to kill you in an abhorrent manner so, yes. I, from a morale standpoint, do care."

Brick and his brothers were shocked to hear this. They've been so used to hearing people complain about their very existence that it wouldn't surprise them at all if one day, the entire city suddenly called for their heads to be on pikes by any means necessary.

Brick just looked to the side as he said, "Well, thanks for that, I guess." He wasn't really sure how to respond to what the Chief said so he just went with a simple thank you and judging by the Chief nodding in response, it looked like it was acceptable.

"You six should probably head home now, you've all had a long night." The Chief suggested.

Blossom nodded. "Yeah, sounds like a plan."

Back outside, the kids had just seen the police place Dick in the back of a squad car when one of the officers walked up to the Chief. "Sir, we've discovered something interesting about the exo suit that Dick is wearing."

The Chief raised an eyebrow and said, "Alright, and what is that?"

The officer shifted somewhat uncomfortably and said, "There is a life support system built into the suit. Dick should be, medically speaking, dead right now. He's artificially keeping himself alive, living on borrowed time."

This stunned everyone, the man may have survived swallowing the Chemical X and being burned alive when his lab caught on fire and exploded, but he didn't escape scott free.

"So..." Butch began uncertainly, "technically he's a...uhh, zombie?"

Everyone turned and gave Butch a wide eyed look before looking back at the officer who was rubbing the back of his head, shrugging his shoulders. "If you want to look at it that way...then, yes." The officer then smiled nervously as he let what he said sink in and then unhelpfully supplied, "Happy Halloween, heh."

The Chief did not look amused, nor did the kids, so the officer lowered his head and said, "Yeah, I know, not helping. I'll just, uhh, take Dick down to the precinct."

The Chief nodded, "Thank you, and make sure everything on that suit of his is disabled except the life support. We don't need him setting anything on fire."

The officer nodded, got in his car and left. Officer Perez, meanwhile had just gotten of the radio and walked up to the Chief, "Chief, I called in more officers and an armored truck service and they'll be here within the hour."

"Good job Perez. Judging by the amount of treasure here, we might be here until the wee hours of the morning." Perez nodded and walked back over to his squad car to talk with Nicholas.

The mention of time made Blossom blink in realization. "Uhh, Chief, what time is it?"

The Chief looked at his watch and said, "It is 10 'til 11."

Blossom gasped, it was almost 11 o'clock at night? They were supposed to be home 2 hours ago.

"Oh boy, the Professor is going to be so angry. We're way past curfew tonight." Whined Buttercup.

"Hey, I'm sure if you tell him that his old 'buddy' Dick Hardly is still alive and tried to kill you, he'd understand." Reasoned Butch.

Blossom nodded and said, "We will obviously have to tell him what happened tonight but we'll probably do that tomorrow morning after we have a good night's rest." Blossom then turned toward her sisters and said, "Come on girls, let's head home."

Just as the girls were about to take off, Brick reminded them of something. "You want to go pick up your candy first or can we have it?"

The girls froze in mid take off and turned to look at Brick who had a smirk plastered on his face. However, Blossom realized it wasn't his usual mean smirk but more of a teasing, 'aren't you forgetting something' smirk.

Blossom chuckled quietly and said, "Yeah, good idea." She turned back toward the Chief. "Well, good night Chief. We just need to go get our candy, then we'll head home."

The Chief smiled. "Alright, just try not to eat all of it in one day, ok."

The girls giggled at that. "We won't." Replied Blossom. All six kids then began heading back toward the old treehouse in the woods.

Just as they got out of ear shot of the police however, Blossom realized something very important and she gasped loudly. This in turn made everyone else freeze in their tracks.

"Blossom, what's wrong?" Asked Bubbles.

Blossom's face was slightly pale as she shakily explained. "I just realized something. Dick couldn't have been the ghost soldier...at least, not all the time anyway."

Everyone blinked in surprise and looked at each other before Butch said, "But, he said he was the soldier once or twice."

Blossom turned to Butch with a strickened look on her face. "I know he said that Butch but, don't you remember what happened in the cemetery earlier?" The others looked confused so Blossom spelled it out, "The skull ghost, who we now know was Dick, was attacked by the ghost soldier. Dick may have very well played the soldier once or twice as he said but, how could he have been the soldier and the skull ghost at the same time?"

Everyone's eyes shot open at this realization. It would mean, there is still someone else here who wanted to get their hands on the treasure.

"Ok, so there's someone else here. Do we warn the cops or should we look for him ourselves?" Asked Brick.

Blossom gave Brick a funny look. "What do you mean 'we'?"

Brick rolled his eyes. "Hey, crime fighting may be your guys' fortey but, after the night we've had, we're not going to let anyone who has caused us this much trouble get away with it."

Blossom smiled, "Well, I guess personal justice is better than no justice."

Brick again rolled his eyes albeit good naturedly. "Yeah, whatevs Pinkie. So, where should we start looking?"

Blossom shook her head, "Well, first off, we have to let the police know about this, he could be anywhere on the grouds and second, that's assuming he's even still here. After we caught Dick and the police having arrived, he may have left the area by now."

At that moment though, Boomer spoke up. "I wouldn't bet on that Blossom."

Everyone turned toward Boomer to see him pointing out to the graveyard about 100 yards away, they all turned and saw the ghost soldier standing just outside the rod iron fence.

Everyone gasped in surprise and the ghost turned and started walking into the cemetery.

"Get him!" Brick and Blossom exclaimed in unison.


End file.
